London  - England warmed up for their World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine next week with a confident 4-0 victory over Slovakia in an international friendly on Saturday.

Emile Heskey put them ahead after just four minutes and two second-half goals from Wayne Rooney and one from Frank Lampard secured the victory.

Former captain David Beckham set a new record of England appearances for an outfield player when he came on in the second half for his 109th appearance, passing the mark he shared with 1966 World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore.

"I am very happy because they scored four goals," said manager Fabio Capello.

"The performance of the team I like because we played well all over the pitch. The movement off the ball was important and we created a lot of chances."

Rooney turned in a superb all-round performance and fully deserved his two goals, while Slovakia were pretty poor.

Capello picked David James in goal, and plumped for an attacking formation, with Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey up front and Steven Gerrard starting on the left.

It quickly became clear, though, that the Liverpool man had licence to roam and he was involved in the goal for Heskey.

Rooney and Gerrard combined neatly and when the latter pulled the ball back to Heskey, the Aston Villa striker made no mistake from about five yards out.

Rooney was enjoying himself and giving the Slovakia defenders plenty of problems, while Heskey almost doubled his tally and England's lead when he found space but headed over the bar.

Heskey then went off with an injury after 14 minutes, with Capello replacing him with Carlton Cole, and England continued to dominate with Rooney, clear on goal, being prevented from scoring by smart work from the Slovakia goalkeeper, Stefan Senecky.

James was called into action to save well from a decent effort by Miroslav Karhan while Gerrard went close at the other end.

Capello was forced into a second attacking change before half-time when Cole had to come off, prompting Peter Crouch to come on in his place.

Beckham came on to a standing ovation from the Wembley crowd when he replaced Aaron Lennon at the break, while Stewart Downing took the place of Gerrard and Ben Foster came on in goal for James.

Former England captain Beckham revelled in his record appearance and his free-kick should have set up a second goal when Crouch got on the end of it to head goalwards only for skipper John Terry, who was offside, to touch the ball home when it was already going in.

But the second goal always looked likely and again Beckham was the provider with his perfect cross headed home by the impressive Rooney.

Crouch then went off after being studded in the hips, with Michael Carrick coming on, but it did not affect England's momentum and Lampard made it 3-0 with a scuffed finish eight minutes from the end.

Lampard then laid on the fourth goal for Rooney, who took his second with typical aplomb to finish off an impressive victory. (dpa)