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By Mike Collett
LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Three goals in the last 14 minutes guided England to a 5-1 rout of Kazakhstan in their World Cup qualifier at Wembley on Saturday, with the visitors battling for more than an hour before caving in.
Group Six leaders England gained their third successive win after goals from stand-in captain Rio Ferdinand (52 minutes), an own goal by Alexandr Kuchma (62), two from Wayne Rooney (76 and 86) and a last-minute strike by substitute Jermain Defoe.
Kazakhstan have now lost three games in a row following last month's defeats by Croatia and Ukraine.
A bad mistake by defender Ashley Cole, who was booed by England's fans for the rest of the match, set up Zhambyl Kukeyev for the Kazakh goal after 68 minutes.
In contrast, David Beckham received a huge cheer when he replaced Theo Walcott late in the game to make his 106th appearance, equalling Bobby Charlton as England's third most-capped player.
Only Bobby Moore (108 caps) and Peter Shilton (125) have made more appearances.
Although England dominated most of the game Kazakhstan, 131st in the world rankings, played well and were far from disgraced.
The visitors made the brighter start and sporadically threatened England goalkeeper David James and his defenders without going close to scoring.
Tanat Nuserbayev had a chance of marking his debut with a goal after 10 minutes but skewed his shot well wide.
ATTRACTIVE PLAY
Kazakhstan frustrated England, who produced attractive approach play but lacked a cutting edge in front of goal until coach Fabio Capello changed the team at halftime.
Capello replaced midfielder Gareth Barry with winger Shaun Wright-Phillips and England finally made their superiority count.
Ferdinand, standing in as skipper for the injured John Terry, scored with a powerful header from a corner seven minutes after the break and England soon doubled their lead when Kuchma nodded a Frank Lampard free kick into his own net.
A poor square pass by Cole gave Kukeyev the chance to pull one back for the visitors as he chested the ball down and shot wide of James.
Rooney, though, made it 3-1 by heading in a cross from Wes Brown before the striker added the fourth goal when Kazakhstan failed to clear and he stabbed the ball over the line.
Defoe, who had replaced Rooney three minutes earlier, made it 5-1 after a superb through pass from Emile Heskey, who worked tirelessly throughout.
England visit Belarus on Wednesday while Kazakhstan's next qualifier is in April.
