Harry Kane celebrated his 100th appearance for England in true style by scoring both goals in the 2-0 defeat of Finland at Wembley on Tuesday night. Fittingly he was wearing golden boots after receiving a golden cap for reaching the century mark
For Kane it was the perfect answer to his critics after his lacklustre displays earlier this year.
England fans can be a fickle lot and Kane has had to deal with a lot of disrespectful comments in recent times when his form dipped. Some of the criticism was fair enough as he had looked well off the pace particularly at Euro 2024 in Germany.
But his two well-taken goals against the Finns suggest he is not quite ready to be put out to pasture. However, at the age of 31 he will need to sustain his fitness if he is to substantially extend his international career.
Admittedly, Finland are not a footballing powerhouse and England would expect to beat them comfortably. It was a good night for England's interim manager Lee Carsley as he watched another positive performance from his side following an away victory over the Republic of Ireland.
Kane has now scored 68 goals for England. His first came against Lithuania in March 2015 and his tally includes five hat-tricks, most of them admittedly against fairly weak opposition.
England's next highest scorers are Wayne Rooney (53), Bobby Charlton (49), Gary Lineker (48), Jimmy Greaves (44) and Michael Owen (40). It should be noted that Greaves scored his goals in just 57 appearances.
The English newspapers which have been quite critical of Kane in recent times acknowledged his achievement with the Daily Telegraph calling him "Man of the century" while the Star went for "Harry has a total blast."
Other papers concentrated on the gold theme with the Daily Express covering all bases with "Golden Cap, Golden Boots, Golden Goals'' while the Daily Mirror settled for "Golden Star".
Kane joins an impressive list of English century makers. In order of number of caps they are: Peter Shilton (125), Rooney (120), David Beckham (115), Steven Gerrard (114), Bobby Moore (108), Ashley Cole (107), Charlton (106), Frank Lampard (106) and Billy Wright (105).
To put the milestone in perspective, it would be remiss not to look closer at Wright, the Wolves defender who became the first to reach a century.
Wright, who died in 1994, won his caps between 1946-59 in a very different era. For a start there were not nearly as many international matches in those days. It was an austere time in Britain in those post-war years and watching football on a Saturday afternoon was one of the few forms of entertainment.
Wright was the Wolves skipper and first learned he had been made captain of England when a conductor of a local bus he was travelling on showed him a late newsflash in the evening newspaper announcing his appointment.
When Wright won his 100th cap it was also his 65th consecutive appearance for England, a remarkable achievement. He went on to play 70 in a row. Like Moore he played the full 90 minutes every game. There were no substitutes in those days and if a player was injured he was expected to carry on as best he could.
Wright also had a remarkable disciplinary record and throughout his career he was never sent off or even cautioned by the referee.