Southgate cracks Rooney joke after Harry Kane closes in on England record

England boss Gareth Southgate joked that Wayne Rooney would have been on the phone had Harry Kane broken Rooney's all-time scoring record in the 10-0 drubbing of San Marino.

Kane helped himself to four goals against the minnows to help officially seal England's spot in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar - and break a host of records in the process.

The Tottenham star recorded the highest England goal tally in a calendar year (16) as well as becoming the first player to net consecutive hat-tricks for England since Tommy Taylor back in 1956/57.

He also became the first England player to score four goals in a single game since Ian Wright also struck four times against San Marino in 1993.

But, after being withdrawn on the hour mark, he's still five goals shy of Rooney's all-time scoring record of 53 goals.

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And Southgate was quick to joke that he may have had Rooney to answer to had he left Kane on any longer as the Three Lions made short work of the minnows.

"If we left him on another half an hour, we would have had Wayne Rooney's family on the phone," quipped the England boss.

"Harry is a phenomenal goalscorer, we wanted to give him the chance tonight and he took it well. He has got huge personal ambition and showed again his clinical nature and the mentality he's got.

"It's not 'if' he is going to break the record, it is 'when'. And then it's about what he is going to do with it beyond that point."

As well as Kane's remarkable feat of goalscoring, Harry Maguire, Emile Smith Rowe, Tyrone Mings, Tammy Abraham and Bukayo Saka all got on the scoresheet along with San Marino defender Filippo Fabbri, who netted an unfortunate own goal.

The emphatic win capped a fine year for England, who came agonisingly close to winning Euro 2020 this past summer.

And Kane was quick to praise England's performance, even though they were expected to win.

"Yeah fantastic," said the England captain when quizzed on the win.

"Obviously it came to the last game, we were expecting to win tonight but we done a great job and as you've seen in the other groups it's not easy to qualify.

"When we win games people write off the opposition but yeah it's a tough battle so to go through is a fantastic feeling."

Despite the emphatic win, Kane insisted there was still work to be done after qualification for next year's tournament in Qatar was rubberstamped.

"We still need to keep working," added Kane. "I feel like we've been improving year on year with the World Cup and the Euros. Just making the most of the time, we haven't got a lot of time before the next one so just using every training session, every match that we can. Hopefully, the mentality has been building over those years and we can take that into the World Cup now."

And he also shared his pride after moving on to 48 international goals, level with iconic striker Gary Lineker.

"Every time I wear an England shirt I'm proud and whenever I can score goals it's one of the greatest feelings I can have in my career so it's nice to be amongst those people and hopefully we can keep them coming," he said.