ENGLAND face punishment from UEFA after a pitch invasion by home fans at the Stadium of Light last night marred the vital 2-0 Euro 2004 qualifying victory over Turkey.

UEFA will consider whether to force England to play their next Group Seven game - at home to Slovakia at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium on June 11, behind closed doors.

In a heated finale to last night's game, Aston Villa's Turkish defender Alpay clashed with two English supporters and was then involved in a tunnel brawl with England coach Ray Clemence.

FA joint-acting chief executive David Davies last night revealed that there could be an away ban on fans for the return with Turkey on October 11.

But he stressed: "We don't want to go back to a situation where we have fences. We will, however, consider not sending fans to Turkey.''

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was reluctant to be drawn on the Alpay-Clemence incident, and would only say: "Feelings run high sometimes. These things happen in football.''

Turkey coach Senol Gunes said: "Because of the stress and tiredness at the end of the game, there were a few rows in the tunnel, but it is all sorted now.''

Eriksson preferred to dwell on the win and the performance of 17-year-old Wayne Rooney on his first start for his country.

Everton's Rooney played a starring role after Eriksson sprang a surprise by naming him ahead of Emile Heskey.

And Eriksson admitted: "I can't see any reason to leave him out if he plays like that.

"I have thought about playing him since before the Liechtenstein game at the weekend.

"But I didn't want it to come out until today because there had been a lot of talk and a lot written about whether he would play or not.

"It was good to keep it secret - he didn't know until four o'clock today.

"He reacted well and played an excellent game. He has a great talent and now we know he is ready for these big matches.

"He's very strong and when he turns with the ball he beats people. He's very mature for 17.''

But Eriksson added: "All the team played well - I thought we were absolutely fantastic.

"I thought we did OK against Liechtenstein, but here we controlled the midfield and made life difficult for them. We also defended very well - that's why we won the game.''

Skipper David Beckham's booking means he is banned for the Slovakia game, and Eriksson stressed: "We will have to deal with that problem.''

But Beckham still dedicated last night's victory to Eriksson.after the coach received a welter of criticism in the build-up to the game.

Beckham said: "It was a fantastic performance and I would like to think we did it for the manager.

"He has taken a lot of stick in the past couple of weeks and we wanted to do well."

* Michael Owen suffered a back injury last night and is doubtful for Liverpool's crunch game at Old Trafford on Saturday.