THE OTHER HOME NATIONS enjoyed varying fortunes as they got their Euro 2012 qualifying campaigns underway last night, with England shaking off the World Cup cobwebs to batter Bulgaria 4-0 at Wembley.

In-form Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe grabbed a hat-trick, with Manchester City’s Adam Johnson also on the mark for Fabio Capello’s side. England were an infinitely better side than that of the World Cup, and the manner of the performance will chirp the manager.

While Wayne Rooney once again failed to get on the scoresheet, the Manchester United striker played a central role in all of the goals. Joe Hart, in goal, also didn’t put a foot wrong.

In the same group, Wales started their campaign with a disappointing 1-0 away loss in Montenegro. The newly-constituted Eastern side are far better than their bottom seed status suggests, and Wales – having to face England, Switzerland and Bulgaria in the group – will already feel their prospects of qualifying slipping away.

Scotland had to settle for a point with a 0-0 away draw in Lithuania, a side they have met in each of their last four qualifying campaigns, meaning that the Tartan Army are already on the back foot, being in a group with world champions Spain winning 4-0 in Liechtenstein.

Northern Ireland fared better than the Scots and Welsh, winning 1-0 away against World Cup qualifiers Slovenia in a fine display that will bolster the Norn Iron chances of making it to Poland and the Ukraine.

Substitute Corry Evans scored the only goal of the game against the run of play with 20 minutes to go, with his first touch of the ball being enough to steer Craig Cathcart’s low cross into the net.

Despite being on the back foot for most of the match, the Irishmen hung on in a display that boss Nigel Worthington described as ‘superb’.

In the continent’s other big fixtures, Laurent Blanc’s France quite obviously missed its suspended big guns crashing to an embarrassing 1-0 home defeat to Belarus, while Portugal and Cyprus played out an unlikely 4-4 thriller.