Cole double as England struggle past Andorra

(CNN) -- A second half double from Joe Cole spared Fabio Capello's blushes as his first competitive game in charge of England saw his team beat minnows Andorra 2-0 on Saturday night.

Cole and fellow substitute Emile Heskey were thown on at halftime by Capello after a dismal first half display with echoes of their previous match against Andorra under his doomed predecessor Steve McClaren in a European qualifying match in 2007.

There were similar rumblings of discontent among the England following at the Montjuic stadium in Barcelona until Cole popped up to break the deadlock in the 49th minute.

Glen Johnson had been tripped by Fernando Silva, earning him a booking, and Frank Lampard swung over the free-kick. Joleon Lescott guided the ball to Cole, who smashed his volley emphatically home.

Chelsea's Cole quickly grabbed his second after Wayne Rooney's clever reverse pass before Johnson had a goal ruled out when Cole was ruled fractionally offside.

David Beckham, left out of the starting lineup in favor of Theo Walcott, was introduced as a late replacement, but there was little further meaningful action.

England will need to improve when they face their Euro 2008 nemesis Croatia on Wednesday night in a crucial qualifier in Zagreb as Cole acknowledged.

"We've got lots to prove, but we got the job done and we've got to move on," Cole said. "Today's game and Wednesday night's game will be completely different animals."

Croatia beat Kazakhstan 3-0 in their opening match in Group 6 with Tottenham star Luka Modric scoring the second. Nico Kovac put Croatia ahead after 13 minutes and Mladen Petric netted a late third to put them top of the early group standings.

The other game in the group saw Andriy Shevchenko score an injury-time penalty for Ukraine to beat Belarus 1-0.

AC Milan's Shevchenko converted the spot kick in the third minute of injury time after Aleksandr Kulchiya had handled the ball in the box.