Rooney double as England see off Belarus

(CNN) -- Wayne Rooney scored two second half goals as England maintained their perfect start to World Cup qualifying with a 3-1 win over Belarus in Minsk on Wednesday night.

The Manchester United striker continued his rich scoring vein by putting England 2-1 ahead in the 50th minute and wrapped up the victory in the 74th minute with his fifth goal in his last three international games.

"We had to work very hard," Rooney told Associated Press.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to my teammates. It's a great three points. Twelve points from the first four games is a great boost for us."

Rooney had set up Steven Gerrard to put England ahead early in the Group Six match at the Dinamo Stadium, the Liverpool star curling his shot home from 25 meters.

But Pavel Sitko headed an equalizer after 28 minutes as the hosts finished off a 23-pass move and they continued to unsettle the England defense.

Fabio Capello's men showed their fighting qualities and re-established their lead soon after the break with the excellent Emile Heskey muscling his way past Sergei Omelyanchuk then crossing for strike partner Rooney to sidefoot home.

England continued to dominate and Gerrard took advantage of a clever dummy by Rooney to play in the striker who swept past a defender before clipping the ball into the net from close in.

Capello preferred to put the emphasis on the quality of the team performance rather than any individual.

"Heskey and Rooney did very well and the movement of both is very good. They are quick, they are strong and they know how to play good football together very well," he said.

"Rooney is a very important player for us and is playing very well at the moment. He is having a 'magic' time at the moment.

"But it was not only Rooney. Heskey and (Steven) Gerrard played very well. (Wayne) Bridge played very well, also the defending midfielder. This was about how we played like a team.

"Belarus played well and it's not easy to play against them, but we were compact. We played like a group. It is not about relying on one or two players creating something. It a team performance. That is important to me."

Gerrard hit the post in the closing stages as England coasted to victory that leaves them five points clear of second-placed Croatia who thrashed Andorra 4-0 in the other qualifying match in the group on Wednesday night.

David Beckham came on as a late substitute to become the third most capped player in England's history.

The LA Galaxy midfielder secured his 107th cap to relegate 1966 World Cup winner Bobby Charlton to fourth place in the list.

One more appearance -- possibly in a friendly in Germany next month -- would see the 33-year-old Beckham equal 1966 captain Bobby Moore's tally of 108 caps, the highest total by an outfield player.

The record is held by goalkeeper Peter Shilton with 125 caps.

Meanwhile, England have broken the back of their qualifying campaign after Capello instilled belief in a squad that failed to reach Euro 2008.

"We're going into games now believing we can win them. We've got a lot of confidence," said Rooney, who has worked with the coach on his finishing.

"Goals are going in for me and I'm really pleased. I work every day on my finishing and it's going well.

"You can always improve, there are weaknesses there I can improve on. I've worked a lot with the manager on finishing since he's come over, it's starting to pay off on the pitch now which I'm happy about."

Stand-in captain Rio Ferdinand warned England not to get carried away. "It's good but still there is much to improve," he said. "It doesn't make us qualify because we have won four on the bounce - it puts us in a good position."