SCOTLAND 1, ENGLAND 3
Captain Wayne Rooney led from the front as England triumphed on their first visit to Scotland in 15 years.
Rooney scored twice as England silenced the Scots as they extended their unbeaten sequence to four games North of the Border.
They were his 45th and 46th international goals as he claimed outright possession of third place in England’s all time scoring list.
And the Manchester United skipper inches to within two goals of Gary Lineker and being three shy of record holder Sir Bobby Charlton.
Alex Oxlade gave England a first-half lead, but it was Rooney who provided the gloss in the second half as well as proving an inspirational leader.
Manager Roy Hodgson again praised Rooney believing he stands on the threshold of greatness.
He said: “Records and milestones are important. If he carries on, we will see him at the top of the scoring list.
“He has played his 100th game and has the record number of caps in sight if he keeps his form for the next few years.
“He won’t want to be the first to retire when he can go it and keep his end up.”
England’s manager described it was an impressive performance from his team.
He explained: “I was very pleased and we showed intensity from the off. We started well and there were not many periods in the game when we lost control.
“Some of the attacking moves were very good and defensively we were sharp and won the ball back quickly when we lost it against a good team.”
England made six changes from the side which beat Slovenia on Saturday in their Euro qualifier as Joe Hart was rested completely while Jordan Henderson, Phil Jagielka, Kieron Gibbs, Raheem Sterling and Adam Lallana were all on the bench.
Into the team came Fraser Forster in goal, Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling into defence with James Milner, Stewart Downing and Oxlade-Chamberlain into midfield.
Scotland had seven Championship players in their side and the gulf in class clearly told as England were rarely troubled throughout the night.
That was something acknowledged by Scotland manager Gordon Strachan who explained England’s side was packed with Champions League players.
“The priority was to win against the Republic of Ireland which we did. That was what we set out to do when we met up 10 days ago, but I feel we let ourselves down,” he said.
Strachan added England played to a level no other team had done against Scotland in his time as manager.
It needed a spark of genius to break the deadlock and Jack Wilshere provided that in the 32nd minute with a defence-splitting long high ball which Oxlade-Chamberlain raced on to before glancing a header low past keeper David Marshall.
Scotland were stunned within two minutes of the restart when Rooney doubled the lead.
Milner’s free kick was cleared only as far as Shaw who drove in a low ball from the left and it was deflected into the air for Rooney to head out of the despairing dive of substitute keeper Craig Gordon.
Forster’s first save of the gamed came in the 51st minute as he tipped over a header from Russell Martin.
Scotland somehow managed to get a toe hold back into the game with seven minutes left when they halved the deficit.
Left-back Andrew Robertson made a great break and played a return pass with Johnny Russell before slotting a shot low inside the near post.
England stepped up a gear and regained a two-goal advantage within two minutes when Rooney struck again.
Milner released Lallana with a great pass and the Liverpool man weaved his way to the byline before cutting the ball back to Rooney to fire home.
The goal was followed by a celebratory summersault which underlines the importance of the goal which sealed victory.