Nathaniel Clyne endured a frustrating evening as he was forced to sit and watch from the bench as England beat San Marino 5-0 at Wembley.

The Saints right back was widely expected to make his international debut tonight, having established himself as the Premier League’s form player in his position over the opening weeks of this season.

However, Roy Hodgson pulled out a late surprise, instead opting to play ex-Saint Calum Chambers, the man who found himself playing second fiddle to Clyne at St Mary’s towards the end of last season.

It was even more of a shock due to Chambers having been left out of the initial squad and instead selected for the under-21s until the injury to John Stones saw him drafted into the senior squad – and having also been used as a centre back by the Gunners for much of this season.

Clyne will now be hoping to make his England debut in the next Euro 2016 qualifier against Estonia on Sunday as Chambers’ performance was somewhat uninspiring.

Roy Hodgson was a happy man though with his team’s performance.

He said: “I thought it was a job well done.

“I thought the crowd were fantastic and had an enjoyable night.

“They saw five or, in my opinion, six goals and there could have been a few more.

“I certainly can’t fault the players for their application throughout the game and I’m really pleased that we have got this game behind us.

“They are never easy games to play but we’ve won it very comfortably and added five goals to our tally.”

He added: “The fact is what people realise, and I’m sure they do whatever they say, is in the first half when a very fit and healthy team are getting ten men behind the ball and giving you no space to play in that’s the time you’ve got to wear them down, keep plugging away, knowing that if you do that and score one or two goals, in the second half it’s going to open up and there will be chances for lots of goals.

“I think the way the players approached it was very good.

“Of course in the second half against a team that was tiring a little bit the tempo of the passing was very good and Jack (Wilshere) found some very good forward passes.”