Did you ever believe Gareth might not fancy it?

GARETH SOUTHGATE was as air-punchingly animated as a man in a blue-grey, three-piece company suit can sensibly be.

Almost half a footballing hour of his England managerial life had elapsed and there had been little to make the Maltese cross.

No need to fret, of course. The breakthrough was as inevitable as a pointless Wayne Rooney (inset) pass out to the flank.

Yet when Daniel Sturridge did sweetly nodded justice to Jordan Henderson’s sweetly delivered cross, the Southgate relief was released in brief upper-cutting euphoria.

He wants the gig, proper, make no mistake.

He knows the chalice is not really poisoned, the job not really impossible. And when Sturridge’s header drifted lazily on to the scoreline, Southgate felt the pride.

The first goal of an England team under his command.

There have been suggestions in the recent past that reservations over the job lurk in Southgate’s psyche.

You can bet they have been banished by the experience of leading his squad to victory at Wembley.

Now to save time and trouble, let’s assume that every single judgement on this facile triumph is prefaced by the words ‘...it was only Malta’. They were predictably poor. Three Lions against a Dog and Duck.

And the Three Lions were not much cop either.

But there was nothing in this dreary mismatch – and, maybe more importantly, in the pre-game camp – to suggest the FA should have any qualms about giving Southgate the job on a permanent basis.

Bin the interim, lose the caretaker, forget the four-game trial.

They won’t do it right now, because they know how that would look.

They know the public would ask FA decision- makers how they could change policy on the basis of a tap-in three points. But word from the postprandial Royal Box was that FA chairman Greg Clarke was telling anyone not already asleep that Southgate had been very impressive over these past few days. Apparently, Clarke observed that Southgate ‘commands the respect of everyone’. It certainly seems that way. Publicly – and, more tellingly, in private – he certainly commands the respect of these players despite his managerial stature hardly being immense. And don’t forget, England have gone for stature in the past and we all know the highly expensive and highly calamitous consequences. Southgate looks a good fit and, anyway, international football management no longer tends to be the haunt of the established, blue-chip boss.

You can learn on the job. Joachim Low did.

There was not an awful lot to be learned from the sort of match that necessarily scars the qualifying processes for major tournaments.

For large chunks, it verged on the unwatchable, which is probably why most of the 80-odd thousand people appeared not to be bothering.

You could hammer England for not giving Malta a hammering, you could wonder how Rooney’s labouring presence continues to be a given, you could question whether Theo Walcott merits chance after international chance.

You could muse admiringly at Jordan Henderson’s continuing development, wish Daniel Sturridge’s cute finish was matched by a more satisfying overall contribution, look forward to Dele Alli’s progression.

The bottom line is that England win qualifying matches. This was more about the beginning of yet another England era.

This week and the build-up to Tuesday’s game in Slovenia are about whether Southgate is a long-term fit. Nothing so far suggests he isn’t.