In the end, really, it was a canter. Before the match Steven Gerrard had bemoaned England’s lack of consistency but this was a result that means the national team’s competitive record at the new Wembley reads played three, won three. In each of those games they have scored three goals, with the names of Michael Owen and Shaun Wright-Phillips cropping up regularly.

This time it was a victory at a cost though. Ashley Cole was stretchered from the pitch minutes into the second half after a collision involving the Estonia striker Kaimar Saag and Joleon Lescott, who was winning his first cap as a half-time replacement for Rio Ferdinand. The severity of the injury was enough to warrant injured England captain John Terry to rush down the tunnel and check after his Chelsea colleague.

It was an injury that marred a decent, if not fluent, England performance. From early on the signs were good; for starters, so worried was Estonia’s coach Viggo Jensen that he refused to allow his players to watch videos of England’s players lest it made them sick. Certainly Mart Poom will be feeling the worse for wear if he looks back on England’s goals. For the first, he was beaten through his legs by Wright-Phillips, who had been linking brilliantly with the overlapping Micah Richards from the off, after the winger ran on to his right back’s through ball in the box. The shot was good, sharp and angled, but one Poom should have dealt with.

England’s second, and Wayne Rooney’s first competitive strike for his country since Euro 2004, followed a period of flowing passing. Pinging the ball between them, waiting for the opening, Joe Cole dashed past Aleksandr Dmitrijev down the left, centred and Poom would easily have covered Rooney’s weak and mis-hit shot but for a deflection that sent the ball into the bottom left corner. If that was unfortunate, the third goal, coming 90 seconds later was almost comical. An own goal from the midfielder Taavi Rahn who, attempting to head clear, deflected an innocuous Ashley Cole cross from outside the area past poor Poom.

To the Estonians’ credit, they did at least show a greater willingness to attack than the likes of group-mates Israel. There were times too when England’s defence struggled with them too, a long throw from Dmitri Kruglov midway through the first half caused panic until Ferdinand put his foot through the ball.

Though the attacking intent was commendable, it was a tactic that left considerable room in the middle of the pitch on which the midfield pairing of Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry - Frank Lampard watched 70 minutes of this game from the bench - stamped their solid, if unspectacular authority. Of England’s strike partnership, there was mixed news though. While Rooney buzzed about with craft - an attempt to chip Poom from the edge of the area the highlight - he probably played too deep, at times turning the midfield four in to a five. Owen, meanwhile, looked less convincing higher up the pitch without a partner’s knock down from which to feed. Three times he crafted decent openings, though, only to see the linesman waving him offside. It was enough to suggest the sharpness is there yet, sensibly, caution kicked in as he made way for Lampard with 20 minutes still to play.

The theory was that, with three key players on yellow cards, Steve McClaren would allow some of the more junior players a run-out from the bench. So it was that Lescott replaced Ferdinand but Cole’s injury forced the Everton defender into the left-back slot, with Richards moving to the middle to allow Phil Neville to guard the right. It was a reshuffle that left Lescott a touch overawed, the Estonian attack making use of his indecision on the flank but to little avail. It summed up a second half in which neither team could progress the story laid out in the first - though it is not something England will or should worry about for too long.

Russia will provide stiffer competition on Wednesday but this was a performance from which England can take heart. Cole’s injury aside, this was a professional result, achieved at the cost of little sweat, that suggests perhaps the consistency Gerrard called for is at hand.

The feelgood factor that Scottish football was basking in before today now risks reaching go-crazy status following a victory over Ukraine that brings the Tartan Army ever closer to the Euro 2008 finals. Early goals from Kenny Miller and Lee McCulloch put the home side ahead but a 24th-minute strike from Andriy Shevchenko led to moments of high excitement and teeth-gnashing tension before James McFadden - him again - triggered wild celebrations by sealing three precious points in the 69th minute.

Four points from their remaining two matches - in Georgia on Wednesday and at home to Italy next month - will now guarantee Alex McLeish’s men a ticket to the finals.

A sell-out Hampden Park was heaving even before kick-off this afternoon but Ukraine, who needed to win to maintain their own qualifcation hopes, showed early on that they were determined to gatecrash the party, Shevchenko rifling a long-range shot just over the bar in the first minute. Just three minutes later, however, the raucous Tartan Army were in raptures when Miller opened the scoring. Scott Brown had been chopped down wide on the right by Andriy Nesmachny and McFadden whipped the resultant free-kick in to the near post, where Miller peeled off his marker and nodded into the net.

The dream start drifted further into the realms of fantasy in the 10th minute, when the Scots added a superb second. Again it came from a free-kick - the Ukrainian defence were clearly expecting the ball to be lofted towards the forwards who’d clustered around the penalty spot, but instead McCulloch cleverly sneaked out to the corner of the box, was picked out neatly by Barry Ferguson, controlled the ball brilliantly and then capped off a well-worked routine by sending an unstoppable curler into the top corner.

Even after those two goals, however, the Scots could not relax, as the rollicking tempo and near-chaotic openness meant almost anything could happen. Brown and Ferguson combined brilliantly in the 24th minute to tear through the Ukrainian defence, only for the Celtic man to lose his footing just as he was about to shoot. Ukraine swept quickly forward and when Gary Naysmith failed to deal properly with a cross from the left, Nesmachny collected it on the right and sent it back into the danger zone via a slight flick off the head of Andriy Vorobey. That flick was enough to befuddle Scott McManus, who missed the ball and then watched in anguish as it struck Naysmith’s arm. As some Ukrainians howled for a penalty, Shevchenko simply rocketed the ball into the roof of the net.

Slick and bold in possession, the Scottish were looking jittery at the back and indecently exposed down the flanks. As the first half progressed the visitors’ menace grew. Shevchenko wellied a wild free-kick over the bar before defender Vladimir Yezerskiy sprung the Scottish offside trap to latch on to a lofted Andriy Voronin pass. Eight yards out and with only Craig Gordon to beat, the centreback drew relieved laughter from the home crowd by sending a feeble shot trickling wide.

As the tension mounted so too, incredibly, did the noise - but to the credit of both teams the quality of play did not dip. The same could not be said for the decisions of Dutch referee Pieter Vink, however, as he denied Scotland a penalty after Alan Hutton’s burst into the box was brought to an abrupt halt by a blatant Vorobey foul.

Moments before half-time, it was the Ukrainians’ turn to bawl in disbelief after Shevchenko was clattered to the ground by Naysmith just as he prepared to shoot and again the referee waved play on. There was still enough time for Vink to make yet another eccentric call before the break, as McFadden raided down the left and into the box only to be tripped by Andriy Tymoschuk. This time Vink did not ignore the angry Scottish appeals -no, he booked both Ferguson and McCulloch for dissent, meaning the latter will be suspended for Wednesday’s journey to Georgia.

Ukraine manager Oleg Blokhin introduced Ruslan Rotan at half-time and within four minute the winger made his presence felt, charging down the left before picking out Voronin on the edge of the box. The Lvierpool striker flashed a half-volley just wide. Voronin’s aim was better two minutes later, but Gordon parried his 20-yard shot. Ukraine, though, were looking ever-more dangerous and Scotland were struggling to secure any sustained possession.

In the 66th minute, Ferguson, McFadden and Stephen Pearson swapped a series of snappy passes down the left and eventually won a corner. Though that corner was easily cleared, Scotland seemed to gain confidence from the move that had preceded it, and suddenly they got up a head of steam. Miller had a decent shot saved one minute later before, in the 69th minute, McFadden stepped into his now-familiar role of national hero, taking one touch to control a fine cross-field pass from Brown, and then lashing a left-footed drive under Olexandr Shovkovskiy and into the net. That effectively killed off the Ukrainian threat. And gave even more life to Scottish football’s renaissance.

Just two months after the release of the iPhone, which Steve Jobs proclaimed was the best iPod ever, Apple is expected to reveal Wednesday how it plans to move the iPod line forward.

The company has summoned reporters and analysts to San Francisco’s Moscone Center for an event, the invitations for which feature an image from Apple’s iPod advertising.

The event has generated a great deal of interest among Apple devotees, especially after the successful introduction of the iPhone. The timing is also good for Apple, which hasn’t overhauled the standard iPod or the iPod Nano in almost two years.

Speculation among bloggers and analysts suggests Apple will announce a new video iPod and a revamped iPod Nano with video capabilities, both of which could run a version of Apple’s OS X operating system. Apple is also expected to introduce a new ring tone service for iPhone users, according to reports in the Los Angeles Times and New York Post.

The biggest question is: How much of the iPhone will work its way into the new iPods? The iPhone has a touch interface, Wi-Fi and a large screen. It also runs a version of OS X.

Analyst Shaw Wu of American Technology Research said he expects many of the iPhone features to appear on the next iPod.

“The last main iPod was introduced in October 2005, and it has seen only minor changes,” Wu said. “The successor product to that has been under development for some time, and we’ve seen a preview of it with the iPhone.”

Wu said he expects the latest iPod to have a touch screen with a wider aspect ratio. He also anticipates the iPod will continue to have a hard disk to handle video storage, though there also could be a flash memory version of the video iPod. He said he doesn’t expect the new iPod to have Wi-Fi, which could hurt sales of the iPhone and anger iPhone partner AT&T.

“It’s a delicate balance to manage,” Wu said.

But Susan Kevorkian, an analyst with IDC, said Apple will need to keep things fresh and innovative, which may mean pulling out all the stops with the iPod, including adding Wi-Fi support. It’s unclear, said Kevorkian, whether that would mean immediate wireless downloads of songs via iTunes or wireless syncing of iPods instead of plugging them in to a computer.

“If Apple takes an overly conservative tack, it risks being in a rut and being upstaged by its rivals,” Kevorkian said.

Indeed, Sony announced its first Walkman portable media devices with video capabilities last week, and Nokia unveiled an online music service.

Kevorkian said Apple will probably include a version of OS X on new iPods. Including the operating system would give the iPod more capabilities to run applications.

The iPod Nano is also expected to get an update, with more storage and maybe video for the first time. Several blogs have run photos of an iPod Nano mockup that is wider with a fuller screen.

“We think video support for Apple’s flash-based players makes sense, particularly as they develop more offerings on iTunes,” Kevorkian said. “A little more screen real estate and more storage would make that more compelling.”

Apple continues to be the dominant maker of personal media players, with more than 70 percent of the market. But revenue growth has slowed in recent quarters, down to just 5 percent in the latest quarter compared with the same period last year.

With any Apple event, there is plenty of room for surprises. Some have speculated that Apple will finally be ready to announce Beatles content for iTunes because it settled its legal dispute with Apple Corps Ltd. over the Apple name this year. The invitation for Wednesday’s event included the phrase, “the beat goes on,” which also appeared in the Beatles’ last press release before the band broke up.

Apple might also have iPhone news. It’s more likely that Apple would be prepared to unveil the first iPhone for the European market, but it could also be ready to discuss a smaller iPhone. And Jobs could outline changes for iTunes.

E-mail Ryan Kim at rkim@sfchronicle.com.