Fabio Capello today saluted hat-trick hero Theo Walcott but urged England’s huge football fan base to keep the pressure of expectation off his team.

Walcott’s brilliant showing in the 4-1 destruction of Croatia last night brought back the missing “feelgood” factor about the national team at a stroke.

It left England in early charge of their World Cup qualifying group – and, typically, saw the bookies immediately cut their odds of even WINNING the 2010 finals from 12-1 to 9-1.

That’s typical of the heated reaction which follows such a momentous performance and Capello is desperate to limit the over-excitement.

“The result was better than I expected,” he said, “but I said in the build-up that I had a lot of confidence in the players because we had all worked very well in the 10 days or so we stayed together.

“That was the case during the training and every moment. It is very important. We played well, we played like a team, very compact and with no problems.

“We studied the style of Croatia and we tried to make it difficult for them to play their usual style. But let’s not get carried away. We have just started. It is the second game of the qualifying round. It is a good performance, a good result, but it is nothing.

“It is only one game. There is much still to do and games like Belarus and Ukraine will also be tough.”

The night belonged to Arsenal’s young forward Walcott, although England’s manager was again cautioning the public about expecting too much from the player.

“I decided to put Theo into the first XI because I saw the game against Andorra at the weekend and also how he was in training – and at this moment he is fantastic both psychologically and physically.

“It is very dangerous for defenders against Walcott. At this moment, he is difficult to contain.

“Of course, he is a young player and I said after the Andorra game that he will play fantastic games – but also that he will not play the same level in all of the games.

“When he plays like he did against Croatia, it is fantastic, but when he plays not so good, we have to support him. This is very important.

“Wayne Rooney, who scored the other goal in last night’s fabulous, led the tributes to Walcott, who was famously taken to the World Cup in 2006 but not used.

“He offers something a bit different – he’s probably the quickest player I’ve seen,” Rooney said. “Sven-Goran Eriksson saw the talent in him in selecting him for the 2006 World Cup.

“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster for him the last two years.”

By Chief Sports writer Martin Swain