Raheem praised for his sterling work

Midfielder Jordan Henderson says Raheem Sterling is cashing in on some hard work as his England goal glut continued.

Sterling, who went for more than 1,000 days without scoring for his country bagged his eighth goal in eight games in Tuesday’s 5-3 Euro 2020 qualifying win over Kosovo.

The Manchester City forward also claimed three assists and has become one of the most productive players in Europe.

Henderson and Sterling’s clubs are locked in a duel, as Liverpool and City match each other blow for blow in the Premier League.

Henderson knows Sterling’s form will be vital if England are to claim major silverware but hopes it will be restricted to international level.

“Raheem’s a fantastic player,” the Liverpool midfielder said. “He’s been playing like this for many years, he’s always been so good to play with.

“Now he’s getting his rewards, he’s getting goals and assists and you can see his confidence growing.

“He’s performing at the highest level and hopefully he can continue to do that.

“We just need him to keep doing it – more for England than City. ”

The gloss was taken off England’s win by some shoddy defending after the break gifting their visitors two goals.

They also handed Kosovo a lead inside 34 seconds and the general consensus is that Gareth Southgate’s men will be punished by stronger opposition.

“We’re disappointed, especially with their goals,” Henderson added. “It’s important to keep clean sheets as well.

“We can’t always rely on the front three to score. We need to defend properly as a team first and foremost.”

Meanwhile, Gareth Southgate is pleased by the way England’s youngsters are progressing.

Four players aged 22 or under started Tuesday’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Southampton.

A further two in that age bracket came off the bench in the 5-3 victory over a Kosovo side who ruthlessly punished individual mistakes at St Mary’s, with Michael Keane and Harry Maguire errors bookending a sloppy Declan Rice mistake.

Southgate believes such sloppiness will ultimately help England, while 19-year-old Jadon Sancho’s brace underlined his quality.

“I think it’s still really early stages of Declan’s international career, and he’s given two really mature performances,” the England boss said.

“It was an important experience for Trent (Alexander-Arnold), and two important experiences for (Mason) Mount. There’s Jadon too.

“We felt we were still a huge threat with the ball, and we didn’t really feel the need to take a step back because we weren’t structurally defending poorly, we’d just made some crazy errors.

Tuesday’s qualifier appeared more beneficial than Saturday’s 4-0 thrashing of Bulgaria at Wembley, where the visitors sat deep and only fleetingly threatened.

Kosovo, by contrast, attacked and posed different problems, while their second-half wobble raises questions about the young group’s game-management.

“I don’t think (the errors) are inevitable. Even for a young side we shouldn’t have been making the mistakes we made,” Southgate said.

“But it’s not a bad thing for them to go through, to experience that.””

We just need him to keep doing it – more for England than City. JORDAN HENDERSON

Picture: Getty. Raheem Sterling wheels away followed by team-mates after scoring for England against Kosovo.