To say last night’s game at Wembley was something of a damp squib for Nathaniel Clyne and thousands of Saints fans eagerly anticipating his international debut is something of an understatement.

In the days since the England squad met up and the first media briefings took place, it was widely expected that Clyne would win his first cap.

It was the perfect game for him to do it in as well – San Marino at Wembley.

The footballing minnows were always going to be comfortably beaten by England and would offer next to no threat going forward.

It seemed like the ideal situation for Clyne to get a first chance at the very top level.

The rumours were that Calum Chambers, the former Saint who moved to Arsenal for £16m in the summer, might get a first game for England at centre half.

It’s the position where Arsene Wenger wants to play him for the Gunners in the long term, and again it was argued that with so little threat expected from San Marino it would be the perfect opportunity to blood him in that role.

As it transpired, Chambers actually played the entire game at right back, consigning Clyne’s dreams of an England debut to the dustbin for now as he spent the night as an unused sub.

It was a baffling decision from Roy Hodgson.

Chambers is unlikely to be a long term solution for England at right back given that his club manager will play him at centre half whenever he can.

On top of that Clyne is the form man at right back in the Premier League this season, and is performing even better than the end of last season, when he was keeping Chambers out of the Saints side.

Chambers wasn’t even in the initial squad, instead picked for the under-21s until an injury to John Stones, so it’s worth asking how he suddenly jumped ahead of Clyne in the pecking order?

Even dispassionately it is so odd.

If you had to really examine the two, who are both fine players, you would conclude that Clyne is better going forward, while Chambers is more defensive minded.

Against San Marino surely you would want the more attacking option. Apparently not.

The game played out a bit like that for Chambers, who was very underwhelming.

It was not really his fault, it was just not a night that played to his strengths.

He had literally nothing to do defensively, and could offer little going forward.

Certainly in a turgid first half in which England could only break their opponents down via a goalkeeping stumble and a penalty, they were crying out for Clyne’s overlapping pace out wide rather than always playing through the middle.

Hodgson though can say that England barely broke a sweat as they hit five goals against the world's worst national team, San Marino.

In truth, there was never any question whether Hodgson's side would win this European Championship qualifier, just a case of how many they would score.

San Marino are ranked 208th in the world - joint bottom alongside Bhutan - and did well to restrict England to just a 5-0 win in the Group E clash at Wembley.

The country with a population of 32,576 - roughly the same as Fleet, Coalville and Leighton Buzzard - held firm until the 24th minute, when Phil Jagielka nodded home after a comical defensive miscommunication.

San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini then did well to keep the scoreline down, but was unable to stop Wayne Rooney's fiercely-struck penalty as half-time approached.

Danny Welbeck turned home soon after the restart and, having seen Adam Lallana – who came on at half time along with another former Saint in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - wrongly denied a fluky first England goal, substitute Andros Townsend lashed home from the edge of the box.

Alessandro Della Valle completed the scoring by turning past his own goalkeeper to the delight of the 55,990 fans inside Wembley - the lowest attendance for a competitive England fixture since the stadium opened in 2007.

Clyne will now be hoping that he will get his chance in the next qualifier in Estonia on Sunday, rather than have another frustrating evening.