MACEDONIA contained England comfortably because McClaren’s millionaires had little momentum and no final ball.
It was much ado about 0-0.
England’s only score was at the box office.The crowd was a massive 72,262, an England home record outside Wembley
Rooney was peripheral, Downing had no pace, Lampard looked slow and clumsy, Gerrard was far below his best.
England’s best player was a guy we did not expect to play : Ledley King, who came in for Rio Ferdinand, who has a back problem.
They spent two days practicing 3-5-2 and then didn’t use it.They worked on game two before game one : that ain’t clever. If you have a home game, then an away game, win the home game.Focus on that.
Crouch-Rooney could only work if they cranked up the tempo, rattled Macedonia early in the game, and won some second balls.
To win second balls you needed Scott Parker, not Michael Carrick, who was pitiful. First half, was he playing? He was redundant back there.Macedonia played round him so easily !
Overall, where was the bite? Where was the balance? Where was the tempo?
Why did the subs come on so late? Shaun Wright-Phillips did not replace Downing until 71, Defoe did not come on for Rooney till 74.
Crouch had little service and was anonymous until the last ten minutes.Route One almost worked in 82 when Crouch chested a long, straight pass from King and shot just wide.
England had been outplayed for most of the game but I still thought they would snatch a late goal. It almost came when SWP, adding welcome pace and zest, zipped through the middle and gave Gerrard a chance and he hit a rocket shot from 20 yards which smashed against the bar.
When Crouch got two decent balls at the death he muffed both.First, chesting a cross from Gerrard, he shot into the ground when he could have given Defoe a tap-in.Then he headed well wide.
Fair result, Macedonia are not mugs. It was McClarens’s first blip.
Lampard played badly enough to be dropped but Gerrard got a second yellow (in the group) for a very rash tackle in 48, so he misses Croatia.
So Frank will still be there.So will Rooney.So will Ashley Cole, who was caught in possession too often.
GARY CALDWELL scored the only goal of the game for Scotland against France.
A right wing corner came over in 67, beat everyone, and Celtic defender Caldwell lunged with his leg, connected, and it went in for a priceless goal that puts Scotland top of Group B with 9 points from three games.
Oh, to be in Glasgow tonight ! They’ll be swinging on the curtains in every pub and bleeding in A&E till dawn and beyond.
ENGLAND : Robinson; Gary Neville, Terry, King, Cole; Gerrard, Lampard, Carrick, Downing (Wright-Phillips 70); Rooney (Defoe 74), Crouch .
Subs not used Kirkland, P Neville, Carragher, Parker, Bent
MACEDONIA : Nikolovski; Noveski, Petrov, Sedloski; Lazarevski, I Mitreski, A Mitreski, Sumulikoski, Maznov; Naumoski (Stojkov ht), Pandev (Tasevski 83).
Subs not used Pacovski, Jancevski, Vasovski, Popov, Sakiri
SCOTLAND : Gordon; Caldwell, Pressley, Weir, G Alexander; Dailly;, Fletcher, Hartley, Ferguson, McCulloch; (Teale 59); McFadden; (O’Connor 72).
Subs not used N Alexander, McManus, Neilson, Boyd, Severin.
FRANCE : Coupet; Sagnol, Thuram, Boumsong, Abidal; Ribery (Wiltord 74), Vieira, Makelele, Malouda; Trezeguet (Saha 62), Henry.
Subs not used Landreau, Clerc, Escude, Diarra, Squillaci