England boss Roy Hodgson has singled out midfielder Ross Barkley for special praise following his performance in Friday's 2-0 Euro 2016 qualifying win over Estonia at Wembley.

The 21-year-old Everton ace shone last night as his eye-of-a-needle pass set up Theo Walcott for the Three Lions' opener before the break.

It was only his 16th cap, but Hodgson is convinced that the youngster is developing into an "important" player for England, who made it nine successive qualification victories.

"I think he's been important to the group for a long time. He's been maturing over a period of time, we've seen his performances at Everton and we've seen it with his performances for England too," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News.

"It was great for him to go out tonight and play as well as he did in an important qualifying match. I thought there were some other good performances apart from his too.

"Ross deserves a lot of credit and a lot of plaudits for the way he played today."

Raheem Sterling completed the scoring on 85 minutes as Hodgson's side maintained their 100% record in Group E.

Written by
Shane Callaghan