LONDON, June 16: England's newspapers shrugged off concerns about the national side's lacklustre World Cup form on Friday as they celebrated qualification for the second round and Wayne Rooney’s return to action.

Rooney played only a marginal role in England's late, late 2-0 win over minnows Trinidad and Tobago, but the Manchester United forward still dominated the newspaper headlines.

“We’re thROO,” was the headline of choice for sub-editors on the Daily Mirror and Daily Star tabloids, while their rival, The Sun, went for “Nice to See Roo,” and headlined its back page coverage with “Smackeroo” above a picture of Rooney embracing fellow Liverpudlian Steven Gerrard.

The relief at seeing Rooney back in an England shirt after his rapid recovery from a broken bone in his right foot was summed up The Times, which said the side’s “hesitant and uncertain World Cup campaign acquired hope and purpose within a single minute,” when the 20-year-old came on as a substitute.

On the inside pages, relief over the result and Rooney’s return was offset by large amounts of pessimistic comment about England’s chances of going all the way in Germany, an objective the media here had declared within the grasp of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s squad before the tournament.

“England are progressing through this World Cup with maximum points and minimum panache,” noted the Daily Telegraph.

“Witless England dig their way to late victory,” was the headline in the Guardian, with their football correspondent commenting that the display against T and T will have Eriksson's squad “out of the reckoning so far as most observers are concerned.”

That view was backed up by The Sun, which commented: “England have to get their act together or they will be going home well before the final.”

The Daily Mirror noted that Thursday's match, in which the Caribbean state got within seven minutes of securing a famous point, could “so easily have ended in utter humiliation.”

But the paper underlined that, “World Cups are normally won by teams that build up a momentum after struggling to impress early on.”

With that hope in mind, most of the newspapers expect Rooney to start England's final group game, against Sweden, and there was widespread speculation that Michael Owen could be dropped to the bench.—AFP