FOUR POINTS in the next five days and Fabio Capello can fly off to a Barbados beach and relax for the rest of the winter.

Today's game with Kazakhstan and Wednesday's trip to Belarus will mean the difference between the England boss sitting on a sun lounger or roasting in purgatory until the competitive international season resumes.

Sofarsovery good, but Zagreb must not be England's false dawn if the likeable Italian is to be gently tanned come his competitive return in March, and not burnt to a cinder.

With England's main rivals hopefully taking points off each other in Kiev, the Three Lions could be more than half way to qualification.

Not even in the Setanta studio could we really believe what we were seeing in Zagreb - had the golden generation finally come of age? A tear a way teenager by the name of Walcott certainly had.

But remember in the Croatian capital there was no Steven Gerrard to confuse and restrict Frank Lampard.

Liverpool's captain, for all his talent, was missing from a midfield that sparkled in the late evening sunshine, performing better due to his absence.

It left Joe Cole, Gareth Barry, Lampard and, above all, Theo Walcott to totally boss the game, battering Croatia into submission.

So now with the talismanic Scouser back in the England fold, is this the last chance saloon for a Lampard-Gerrard axis?

Harry Redknapp's criticism of the treatment of Gerrard in the Czech Republic game still rings around the corridors of Wembley.

But if the combination doesn't perform against effectively Kazakhstan's Under 21s, how can Fabio risk it against the more troublesome Belarus in Minsk?

(c) 2008 Daily Mirror. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.