Sven Goran Eriksson’s side are now just two points behind Turkey in their qualifying group with the two countries due to meet at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland on Wednesday.

Eriksson will be hoping that Owen can repeat his deadly finishing in a game England must win to have realistic hopes of qualifying automatically for the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal.

Owen said: “Great players thrive upon expectations and I enjoy playing in big games.

“It’s very nice to score 20 goals for your country. Not too many people have done that so I’ve got to be very pleased.

“I’m still only 23 now so hopefully I’ve got a long time to score a few more goals and I want to get as many as I can.

“We knew that Turkey was always going to be the main game in this group. We knew it was the big one.

“We were expected to win tonight and it didn’t really matter how it happened. The main thing was getting those three points.”

England keeper David James echoed Owen’s sentiments and was pleased to keep a clean sheet on his competitive debut for his country.

He said: “Maybe at the end they had a couple of chances but at 2-0 we are happy to come home with a victory.

“The old cliché, that all that mattered was the three points, rang true tonight.

“We weren’t after big scores, we were just after winning.

“Once it went to 2-0 the game was over. It was dead. We kept the ball a lot at the back and the match was finished as a contest.

“It wasn’t difficult for me to concentrate even though there were long periods when nothing really happened.

“We know it will be harder on Wednesday but it is a winnable game for us. In reality we have to win all our games from now on.”