You’re Clever! Roy salutes wonderkids Tom & Alex

ROY'S BOY ... Hodgson shakes hands with young gun Tom Cleverley

ROY HODGSON was thrilled with the five-star display of England’s young lions — along with his golden oldies.

Tom Cleverley and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain both shone in Moldova while Frank Lampard scored a double to overtake Geoff Hurst as England’s 13th highest scorer with 25 goals.

Manchester United star Cleverley was making only his second England appearance while Arsenal midfielder Oxlade-Chamberlain picked up his sixth cap.

Hodgson said: “I’m not going to make comparisons with other greats from the past but I thought Tom did play well, a resounding yes.

“He stepped into that position and looks at home there. It’s easy to see why Sir Alex Ferguson picks him so often in the United team.

“It’s becoming evident that it was a good decision to use him for Team GB, too, which gave me a chance to discover him.

“I’m really pleased with him and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the first half and Theo Walcott in the second half.

“Alex hasn’t played much so we were worried about keeping him on for too long. At half-time he was really tired and we eventually took him off.

“Tom Cleverley was excellent for the whole 90 minutes but of course he has been playing regularly for United.

“When you watch him play like that you can understand why Sir Alex likes him so much as well.

“He’s come into the team with people like Gerrard, Lampard and Carrick and didn’t look out of place. It’s nice to see these young players taking their chances and showing they merit a place in the squad. But the old guard is making certain they don’t get too much of a look-in.

“Lampard was excellent. Frank, like Steven, is a quality player. Quality is permanent, and that’s proved itself time and time again.

“They might not always play to the top of their game but you’re better off going into games having that quality on the field. I’m happy to have the pair of them — and Michael Carrick as well.”

England were in complete control after Lampard scored an early penalty before he grabbed the second.

Jermain Defoe made it 3-0 by half-time before James Milner and Leighton Baines completed the rout.

Remarkably, Baines’ deflected effort was England’s first goal from a free-kick since David Beckham’s strike against Ecuador at the 2006 World Cup.

Baines said: “I’ll try to claim it — it was definitely on target.

“We could have played better second half but the game was won. The main thing was to not concede a goal.

“It gets us off to a good start and the goal difference could play a part later on so it’s nice to get them on the board.

“It’s nice to get the goal but it’s not one of my more memorable ones. It took a pretty big deflection. I don’t know if you’d describe it as a Brazilian free-kick — it was more like one you’d see in the park.

“I’m chuffed with it. It was a good night all in all. A professional performance from the lads. It shows what we’re capable of. Not many teams would come here and do that.

“They had a couple of tight games against Holland and it proves we’ve got goals throughout the team.”

Hodgson added: ““I was pleased with the way we started but the 3-0 scoreline at half-time was somewhat dangerous because the game was getting too easy.

“We responded well though. Basically it’s positives all around now as long as John Terry’s ankle allows him to play on Tuesday.”

Lampard once again proved he could play an important role as England look to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The Chelsea star said: “These can be difficult places to come but we were expected to win. The way we started showed our intentions. We will try and improve for the next game.

“Maybe we took it too easy when we went 3-0 up. We need to keep our eye on the ball for the whole 90 minutes against Ukraine.”

Midfielder Cleverley, who supported lone striker Jermain Defoe, said: “A win’s the most important thing and 5-0 away from home anywhere is a good result.

“We all knew where each other were and tried to rotate with the other midfielders. We took it in turns to get forward when we had the chance and I think it worked really well.”