Phil Neville did not want to cause a rumpus so he chose not to celebrate; England had just scored their second goal and were heading to the World Cup but the head coach was unmoved.

Inside, though, Neville was doing cartwheels. On a night when he had little to gain and everything to lose, persistence paid off.

Wales may have snuffed out England’s women at Southampton in April in their last meeting but when it really mattered, they were blown away and this victory enabling Neville’s squad to advance to France next summer as winners of Group 1.

After being frustrated in the first half, England eventually demolished Wales.

Toni Duggan, the Barcelona forward, opened the scoring in the 57th minute before Manchester City midfielders Jill Scott and Nikita Parris put a realistic look on a one-sided encounter.

Neville is normally animated character but he sat on his hands as the goals rained due to an incident in the seventh minute. He raced onto the pitch after it appeared Parris had broken the deadlock and never noticed the assistant referee’s flag disallowing the strike.

He immediately apologised to those Wales fans behind his dugout but they were not so forgiving, barracking him at every opportunity. If that gave him a headache, the laboured efforts of his team before the break were more painful to watch.

The situation, however, improved dramatically in the second half, as Duggan (58th) fired into an empty net; Scott’s glancing header (61st) put England in command and Parris (68th) finished the job to ensure next Tuesday’s trip to Kazakhstan is academic. (265)