Harry Kane led a chorus of praise for the finishing school run by England's little-known striker coach Allan Russell.

The 37-year-old former Forest Green striker is the man entrusted by Gareth Southgate with honing the scoring prowess of some of the Premier League's top marksman over the past year.

Glaswegian Russell began as a youth player at Rangers but never made the grade at the top level, he went on to play for Forest Green under then manager Gary Owers in 2006, who was replaced by Jim Harvey and Russell scored five times by early November, in tandem with Cirencester Town boss Charlie Griffin.

Russell runs a consultancy called Superior Striker and styles himself as "the world's number one striker specific coach". That may be a bold claim but England have no reason to question it at present, having scored eight times in their first two World Cup outings.

All but three of those have come from corners or free-kick routines - one of Russell's areas of expertise - and Kane, who topped the tournament scoring charts with five after England's second game, is happy to share the credit.

"He does our attacking set plays, which are going pretty well so far. Every little helps - particularly the little details at this level," he said.

"It's good, because we do a lot of work in training. He does finishing sessions with us, tells us about opposition defenders, goalkeepers and telling us maybe where we can exploit a weakness.

"We are all top players, so he is not running through technique telling us how to strike a ball. It's just little stuff to maybe give us an edge."

Jesse Lingard, who hit a superb goal from the edge of the area in Sunday's 6-1 rout of Panama, echoed Kane's sentiments.

"After training he (Russell) goes through different plays in and around the box. It's about finishing," he said.

"He has played an important role."

Southgate has also highlighted Russell's contribution on the training pitch, having specifically targeted an increase in England's efficiency at dead ball situations.

"We've identified that as a key area in tournaments and it's a key area we felt we could improve upon," he said.

"If anything, Allan is spending more time on those. We're giving it the right sort of attention during training."

Another key cog in the machine is wing-back Kieran Trippier, whose delivery from corners has been outstanding.

At Tottenham he has to play second fiddle to Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen, a player he works alongside at the club's Enfield training base.

"Christian is a specialist, and he is on them at Spurs, but if I get put on them I do my best. I just keep practising in training because you can always improve," he said.

"It is not just me and Christian, there are a few of the boys there after training and you can always help each other. Set-pieces are a crucial part of the game and you have seen how many goals we have scored from them."