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Owen, who crucially opened the scoring after only seven minutes with a skilful control and finish from close range as three players jumped in front of him, added a cracking volleyed second before Rio Ferdinand completed a 3-0 win towards the end.

He also scored with a great strike from outside the box against Israel last Saturday, another must-win game that England from triumphant by a margin of three goals to nil.

"I never wrote him off," McClaren said. "I always knew he was going to be important for us. He looks fitter and sharper in his all-round play."

The diminutive goal-getter collapsed into a heap with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his knee joint in the first minute of the World Cup match against Sweden in the summer of 2006, an injury which kept him out of action for practically the entire last Premiership season.

Owen has now scored 40 goals for the Three Lions in 85 matches, bettered only by Bobby Charlton (49), Gary Lineker (48) and Jimmy Greaves (44).

"I've been playing for my country for nearly 10 years now and hopefully there are a few more to come," Owen commented on the feat. "To get to 40 goals is a great milestone.

"It is great personally, but obviously it means nothing without results like this."

England, who were fourth before this week's matches, have now overhauled Russia and Israel to trail Croatia by two points at the top of Euro 2008 qualifying Group E. The top two teams qualify for next summer's finals in Austria and Switzerland.

"I am greatly satisfied," McClaren continued. "We wanted six points out of the two games and we got them, and I'm satisfied by the performance of individuals and the team.

"But we are keeping our feet on the ground. There's three games to go, and we have won nothing yet and we're not qualified yet either."

Owen added: "We know there's quality in the side but all too often we haven't shown the quality. But in these last two games we've blown teams away in the first half hour."

England next face lowly Estonia at Wembley in October before travelling to Moscow for the return match against Russia on an unfamiliar synthetic pitch.

Russia coach Guus Hiddink said that the race to qualify was far from over.

"England took the chances they created tonight and we didn't have the final pass, the final touch, the killer ball to frighten them," he admitted. "But the qualification is not over yet.

"England must come to Moscow and also play Croatia and this is going to go right down to the end. It is a very tough qualifying group."

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport