GARETH SOUTHGATE praised Marcus Rashford’s strength of character after the teenage striker’s goal took England to the brink of a place at next summer’s World Cup finals.

Rashford’s second-half winner secured a 2-1 win over Slovakia and means England need just two points from their final two matches against Slovenia and Lithuania to book their spot in Russia.

The goal transformed Rashford’s evening, and negated the impact of the Manchester United striker’s third-minute error that saw him lose possession in his own half, enabling Slovakian midfielder Stanislav Lobotka to score.

Rashford’s winner came after Eric Dier had levelled from a corner, and provided further evidence of the youngster’s growing importance to Southgate’s plans.

He does not turn 20 until the end of next month, but having established himself in the Manchester United side, it cannot be long until he is also an international regular.

“I wasn’t surprised by the way he played,” said Southgate, who retained his unbeaten record in competitive fixtures. “He’s such a mature character. The start surprised me, but his maturity is excellent.

“You look at him, and he’s never in awe of the occasion. He doesn’t have any fear of anything. He’s still a work in progress and he’s still at the start of his career.

“He’s still getting stronger, and he’s learning about when to take people on, but I thought his pace on the counter-attack was important, not only for the team, but also for the crowd as well. He had a huge impact on the game.”

England’s performance was far from flawless, with possession often surrendered cheaply and some nervous moments at the back.

However, unlike in Nice 14 months ago, when England were unable to regain their composure after falling behind to Iceland, Southgate’s players successfully turned things around when their hopes of automatic World Cup qualification were hanging in the balance.

Rashford’s direct running troubled the Slovakian defence all night, with Dele Alli also producing an effective display as he pulled the strings at the head of the England midfield.

Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier gradually got a grip of the central-midfield area, and after his players received a large amount of criticism in the wake of Friday’s lacklustre display in Malta, Southgate was delighted to see them emerge from a testing experience with a crucial victory.

“It’s been a big week for them,” he said. “To go through the experience they had on Friday, and live with a bit of the spotlight you get as an England player, then to respond to going behind as they did was fantastic.

“It was a game where the crowd could have turned, but they didn’t. We had to show resilience and a good tactical reaction on the pitch. The starting team was still extremely young, and it is a good experience for you to go through, as long as you win.

“I’m really pleased. In the second half, I thought we controlled the game really well. The players showed real maturity.

“We didn’t start the game well, we didn’t keep possession of the ball and we weren’t able to deal with the way Slovakia pressed us, which is something we will have to work on.

“But we got that right in the second half. We were patient in defence and very difficult to play through, and we kept the ball well when it was 2-1. It wasn’t a case of panicking, we kept possession well to see the game through and that was positive to see.”

The one controversial moment came in the 76th minute when a frustrated Alli appeared to stick up his middle finger to referee Clement Turpin.

Television pictures showed Alli with his finger in the air, but Southgate insists the midfielder was gesturing to team-mate Kyle Walker rather than the official.

“I’ve not seen it, but I’ve been made aware of it,” said the England boss. “Dele and Kyle were mucking about and Dele has made a gesture to Kyle. I don’t know what the angle of the picture was. The pair of them have a strange way of communicating, but that’s what they said when I raised it.

“I’ve just gone and asked him quickly. Hopefully, it doesn’t detract from what I thought was probably his best performance for us since I’ve been the manager.

“His work without the ball was excellent, and his work with the ball was great too. He caused a lot of problems for the opposition defence, and hopefully we will be talking about that when everything else is cleared up.”