England vs. Spain: Rating the England Players at Wembley

England pulled out a strong defensive performance at Wembley on Saturday evening to defeat the current world and European champions Spain by a Frank Lampard goal to nil.

Despite being without the likes of Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Steven Gerrard, Fabio Capello—who was himself missing his son's wedding to attend the match—selected a strong side armed to repel the attacking movement of the Spanish side and was vindicated with a 1-0 win.

Frank Lampard scored the only goal of the game shortly into the second half and despite long spells of Spanish possession and a whole raft of changes to personnel on both teams in the second period, excellent defending and the odd slice of luck, no more so than when David Villa hit the post, ensured England saw out the game with a clean sheet.

Here are the ratings for the England players from today's friendly.

Goalkeeper: Joe Hart

Despite a huge amount of possession for the away side, Joe Hart didn't really have an awful lot to do in the England goal.

He was beaten twice—once by David Villa's shot, which rebounded back off the post, and once by Cesc Fabregas, though that shot was skewed wide.

Hart did produce a good stop just prior to that second chance to thwart Cesc with a good save to his left.

His kicking was generally good and there were no fumbled aerial balls or misguided chases out of his goal.

A solid all-round performance.

Defence: Glen Johnson, Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott, Ashley Cole

Glen Johnson played right-back for the full 90 minutes and had an impressive game. He was strong in defence, stronger than most people are willing to give him credit for on many occasions, and generally did well in his one-on-one battles.

He had a couple of moments where Jordi Alba found space to get in a cross because he had pulled out of position, but all in all he was part of a very hard-working defensive display.

In the first half he got forward with Theo Walcott down the right well, but the second 45 minutes was all about the defence.

Phil Jagielka returned to England's defence after being ousted by Gary Cahill for much of this season and had a good game against Spain. He was unbeatable in the air, though not too many of Spain's attacks came at head-level, and controlled the space in the middle of the penalty box very well.

He was not involved in as many interception moments as his defensive partner, but they worked very well together and Jagielka can be pleased with his display.

Alongside Jagielka was Manchester City centre-back Joleon Lescott. At times he has proven not quite at the required level to be an International defender but today he was superb. Made countless interceptions inside his own penalty area and held a strong line together.

His distribution was suspect at times but to be fair England had very few outlets in the second half.

Ashley Cole had a quiet match by his standards and was rarely involved on the ball in the Spain half of the field, in either half of the match.

He, like Johnson on the other side, defended well and was quick to stop any crosses coming in for most of the game.

Would perhaps have liked to have gotten forward more, but this was a game where defensive responsibility came first and Cole did that job well.

Central Midfield: Phil Jones, Scott Parker

Much of England's success in keeping out Spain owed to the work-rate and selfless performances of Scott Parker and Phil Jones.

Manchester United utility man Phil Jones was deployed in central midfield today after playing right-back previously for England, and his athleticism and ability to break up play and get forward in support quickly made this an ideal position for him.

He made a lot of interceptions and tried hard to support the forward players when England had the ball, though his distribution was not quite up to scratch in the final third.

Scott Parker was the best player on the field for England and certainly the player who got through the most work.

He was constantly closing down Spain's attacking and creative players such as Silva, Villa and Iniesta and prevented them fashioning any openings through the centre of the penalty area.

His tackling was tough but certainly fair when called for, but he was just as happy to stick a toe out and nick the ball back without the need to crunch into his opponent.

A really good midfield performance which will all but seal his place on the plane to the Euros—Capello will believe now that he can't do without Parker in big games like these.

Support Midfield: Theo Walcott, Frank Lampard, James Milner

On paper, a more-or-less 4-2-3-1 would have had these three players, Theo Walcott, Frank Lampard and James Milner, playing ahead of the two central midfielders and behind the forward line.

In reality against Spain, it became a very deep 4-5-1 system where the front man was isolated and these three players had to work extremely hard in defence and even harder to forward and support any resulting attacks, which were few and far between.

On the right side, Theo Walcott initially showed promise against Sergio Ramos as he exploited spaces left by the attacking Jordi Alba, and won his fair share of free kicks in the first half.

However he was unable to really build on that early promise and was substituted at half time.

Frank Lampard captained England in the absence of a number of regular skippers, and won the game with his close range header early in the second half.

Like Walcott, he initially got on the ball well and looked to probe Spain's back-line, but increasingly his job became about making up the numbers in front of England's defence.

Was in the right place at the right time to score the winning goal, but individually it wasn't his best performance. A difficult game for him to get into, but he made a telling impact.

James Milner was similarly unable to stamp his authority on the game for long spells but, again like Lampard, made a single telling contribution which allowed England to win—it was his run down the left which won the free kick from which England scored, and indeed Milner took the set piece and provided a good delivery for Bent to head against the post.

He worked hard down the left flank and covered the space wide of Ashley Cole well, and put the team before himself but was unable to really have much impact on play.

Forward: Darren Bent

A thankless day for lone forward Darren Bent who often found himself 30 yards away from his nearest team-mate.

His hold up play was not, admittedly, as good as it could have been on such an occasion, but perhaps he didn't help himself but not making runs in behind the defence and instead looking to drop deeper too often to receive the ball.

It was always going to be a lonely day up front for him but Bent is all about taking chances around the penalty box and he very nearly did that—his one half-chance for the game was the header from Milner's free kick which hit the post, before Lampard tucked in the rebound.

Substitutes: Downing, Rodwell, Barry, Welbeck, Adam Johnson, Walker

Fabio Capello made his full allowance of six changes during the match as two England players won their first caps in the process.

Stewart Downing entered the game at half time but was disappointingly ineffective on the right wing, unable to get at the Spanish defence at all and never looking likely to be involved on the counter attack. 5 / 10

Jack Rodwell took Frank Lampard's place as the midfielder looking to break in support when England attacked and showed enough early promise to suggest he could have some success in the role in future, but today for him would largely have been about the experience. He did well in his defensive duties and made sure England didn't lose the energy and concentration which had served them well until his introduction. 7 / 10

Gareth Barry replaced Phil Jones and did a similar job, helping to close down the central areas in front of the defence for England. His experience was well served as Spain put England under the cosh later on but were unable to create clear opportunities. This was his 50th cap for his country. 6 / 10

Danny Welbeck made an appearance up front in place of Darren Bent and though he never had a sniff of goal he troubled Spain's backline with his direct running and pace. Always willing to put the work in and became England's first line of defence. Did well in his short time on the pitch. No rating

Adam Johnson came on for club-mate James Milner late on but had little time to make an impact. The couple of chances he did get to run forward on the break were a little disappointing as he failed to find a team-mate with his passes. No rating

Kyle Walker, like Rodwell, made his full England debut and the few minutes he played will merely serve him for the future. He offered a bit more defensive solidity and freshness in front of the defence and will be eager to get another run out in future. No rating