Full Report from Sportbox.tv
England Under-21s bounced back from Friday's setback against Germany with a comfortable 2-0 victory against Azerbaijan at The Riverside.
An air of despondency hung over Peter Taylor's squad after Scott Carson's late error allowed the Germans to claim a 2-2 draw at Hull despite England controlling the game.
However, Taylor's team made no mistake this time round and first-half strikes from John Welsh and Dean Ashton made sure they climbed to the top of their European Championships qualification group.
England took a while to get going and did not test visiting keeper Ruslan Majidov until Tom Huddlestone's weakly hit long-range effort in the 25th minute.
Two minutes later they took the lead when, after Welsh and James Milner saw shots blocked, the ball rebounded to the Liverpool midfielder on the edge of the area and he curled it into the top corner.
Ramal Huseynov almost immediately forced Carson to turn away a curling effort, but from then on it was one-way traffic.
Darren Bent and Ashton squandered chances to double the lead before the Norwich City man made it 2-0 three minutes before the break, when he was played in by the impressive Milner and smashed the ball into the top corner.
The home side continued to dominate after the interval but found chances hard to come by.
Bent thought he had added a third only to be flagged offside and the Ipswich forward's luck did not change when Majidov produced a fine save to turn his 67th-minute header away.
Substitute Jon Stead hit the bar with a powerful ten-yard drive and the Blackburn striker saw a header brilliantly saved in injury-time, but England could not find a third goal.
Click here for Match Stats from the game
Click here for Match Photos from the Game.