Stephen Warnock believes England have improved since the World Cup after winning their opening two European Qualifiers and scoring 10 goals in the process.
Monday night's 5-1 win in Montenegro was marred by allegations of racist abuse aimed at some of Gareth Southgate's players, with UEFA confirming they have opened disciplinary proceedings against Montenegro.
But it was a positive night in terms of England's bid to qualify for Euro 2020, which will see Wembley host seven matches of the revamped competition, including both semi-finals and the final.
"I think it's a progression from the World Cup," Warnock told Sky Sports News.
"It's a progression of tactics and an understanding of how Gareth wants them to play.
"There's a huge belief in what they wanted to achieve last night. It was arguably the biggest challenge of the group to play Montenegro away in a hostile environment.
"It could be very difficult to go in there and they dealt with it emphatically and made it look comfortable."
Warnock also sees no reason why this England side cannot go on to win a major trophy, having reached the semi-final of last summer's World Cup in Russia.
"You look at the confidence that Gareth's instilled in the players and the belief that they've got going into games that they can win games comfortably and that they can go up against the best teams in the world," added Warnock.
"Beating Spain was a huge result for England's psychology and the mental side of the game that they know they can go and compete against the best players and come out on top.
"So they've been given tough challenges and they've come through them."
With regard to possible sanctions against Montenegro, with racist chants aimed at Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi, Warnock believes they should be thrown out of the European Qualifiers.
"You need to kick the team out of the competition, it's as simple as that," he said.
"Punish them in a way that punishes the team, the country, because suddenly you lose the right to be on TV, you're losing the right to qualify for a big competition and to be involved in it.
"Take them out of it completely and punish them in the only way that will actually damage the country as a whole."