Marcus Rashford recovers from setback to show England the way at Wembley

The wounds of Euro 2016 are yet to fully heal, but surviving nights like this will help that process no end.

Among the most pressing issues Gareth Southgate faces is to instil a mental fortitude in his young side so painfully absent in recent tournament failures.

That fragility was obvious against Iceland in Nice in June 2016, when a paralysis took hold of England in the face of adversity.

The stakes were different this time at Wembley, but England nevertheless put themselves in a position where they were no longer in control of Group F and suddenly fearing for their place at next summer’s World Cup Finals in Russia.

Stanislav Lobotka exchanged passes with Adam Nemec before slotting the ball past Joe Hart to leave England staring at disaster after just three minutes.

Slovakia looked slick in possession, starting on the front foot while England searched for inspiration.

Cometh the hour, cometh the boy. It perhaps says something not entirely flattering about the more senior members of this team that Marcus Rashford was the one to revive England’s fortunes, but the Manchester United teenager exemplified the recovery in his 84-minute outing.

Rashford lost possession carelessly on the edge of his own box to allow Slovakia to attack quickly for that opening goal. But he did not let the error overwhelm him.

Instead, he began to help England take the attack to their opponents, with Eric Dier turning home his 37th-minute corner before Rashford put England in front with a superb 20-yard drive. Harry Kane and Dele Alli probed for openings but Rashford was always the biggest threat, displaying a courage to change the course of events which England have lacked when it matters most.

The bigger challenges are, of course, on the horizon.

What pleased Southgate here was England’s ability to respond despite knowing defeat had calamitous consequences. That should provide some encouragement.

“I think we said on Sunday that this is a work in progress,” Southgate explained.

“The only way for them to improve is to go through those sorts of experiences together and win. What I did see was signs of leadership. I thought the captain (Jordan Henderson) was excellent - he really drove the team from midfield. I thought our two centre-backs really got to grips with the game very well.

“So, all of a sudden, there was comfort in a clear method of play but also there were individuals who stepped up in important moments, with and without the ball. That’s what we have got to keep developing.

“This was an important step against what I thought was a very good team. But, of course, there will be even tougher tests than that to come.”

And there are improvements to be made. One victory against talented opposition, albeit hard-earned, is not sufficient to eradicate the nagging feeling England’s finest still morph into paler imitations of the versions witnessed at club level.

Alli did not have one of his most effective evenings; it is possible Kyle Walker may have suggested as much, prompting the single-finger salute for which his former Tottenham team-mate later apologised on Twitter. Walker and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain cost £90million between them this summer but both provided head-in-hands moments of staggering ineptitude.

Oxlade-Chamberlain broke free smartly but shunned options alongside him in a counter-attack to sky the ball hopelessly off-target. Walker then attempted to return a half-cleared corner back into a dangerous area but merely lobbed the ball aimlessly up into the air.

Slovakia’s positivity clearly took England by surprise. Coach Jan Kozak was asked by a Slovakian journalist whether this was their most “courageous” performance out of the three recent meetings with England, having drawn 0-0 at Euro 2016 and lost to Adam Lallana’s stoppage-time winner in the reverse fixture a year ago. It undoubtedly was.

“This was our intention as well because when you have a look at the line-up it was braver than the previous two games,” said Kozak.

“At the Euros we needed one point to qualify, so it was very tactical.

“At home we wanted to play more bravely but we weren’t strong enough to put them under pressure. This was our best performance of those three games.”

Yet, England found a way. It is admittedly setting the bar pretty low to hail this as a significant forward step, but context is everything.

Qualification was on the line when England found themselves behind but there was no implosion.

A crowd of 67,823 went home contented and the final plaudits were left for Rashford.

Southgate said: “He’s still a work in progress, as we saw at the beginning of the game, but he’s getting stronger.

“His impact, in taking people on and getting us up the pitch in the counter-attack, was huge.

“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. I don’t think the team did, either, and responded well.”

There needs to be plenty more where that came from.