Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Pundits are working hard stressing what an off night this was and how it's the points that matter. Lescott even went as far as saying that it was probably because of the low quality of the opposition and had they been playing a better team they'd probably have put in a better perfomance.....

They are deluding themselves, this is not an off night, it's becoming the norm.

Just to see how much of an off night this was, these were my first thoughts for the England matches this year

Italy in March

England got away with that, I think. I also only saw the second half. Sir Gareth might have decided to stay on, but it's the same old stuff
hopeless

Ukraine in March

2-0 win over Ukraine tonight. 2 good first half goals, but a lot of huffing and puffing in the second half against mediocre opposition. Second half torpor seems to be England's 'thing' these days, but Ukraine were never going to capitalise.

Ukraine in Sept

Well, that was nearly a first half to forget. England mastering the art of the 3 P's, pedestrian, plodding and ponderous.
Second half, England dropped their 3 P's approach and shifted seamlessly to the 3 B's .... bumbling, bungling, belaboured.

Scotland, Sept, friendly

As I predicted, England were much improved tonight in a match with nothing on it.....
We still had 2 defensive midfielders though..... Scotland..... why?

Australia, October, friendly

England were dreadful in the first half. Tentative, negative, soft passing that went nowhere.......
Anyway, England won by the odd goal and Australia were a credit to themselves. That sums it up pretty well, I think

Italy, October

crikey, it's a slow game this
at times I could hear the howls of frustration from the fans as England dithered and dallied with the ball in their own half.

I'd love it if someone could explain to me why tonight was just an off night

I'm going to give it 45 minutes tonight

if England play anything like they did the other night, I'm going to bed, because if they do, it'll be desperate viewing

I'm busy tearing pages out of magazines in case I feel the need to construct paper aeroplanes if I get bored while they're playing

Well, I take it youve gone to bed

North Macedonia are no pushovers. Just ask Germany.

Am I correct though that we need to win to be in the top seed pot for the draw?

We need a draw.

Cracking decision for the penalty, richest sport in the world 100 times more lucrative than the next best, and it's officiated by complete morons, and I'm including the corrupt idiots from Uefa and Fifa in that assessment.

Mind you, supposedly the best crop of English players ever, and overseen by a man who got Middlesbrough relegated.

So many anomalies or ambiguities or whatever the word is!

Another pretty poor game, although not paper aeroplane poor, just pretty poor tonight.

England are just too slow in their build up, they give defensively minded teams all the time in the world to get set. Neither Saka nor Grealish attempted to get in behind, they pretty much always cut inside and tried to run across the face of the back 5. I thought Lewis had a pretty good debut and I thought Foden looked the pick of the attackers, but the rest were pretty average really. Guehi was solid enough and Rice was a little more attack minded, but England were just too slow.

The story of the night, though, was the dreadful refereeing. Awful! The NM tactic was to tug back when it was possible and go down in a heap when it wasn't..... and why wouldn't they, because the ref let it go all night. He gave corners as goal kicks and goal kicks as corners, he gave free kicks for things that just weren't fouls and let fouls go. He was awful. Clueless. Were you watching Mikel?

Anyway.... top spot, top pot and a loss free year, but England will have to be a whole lot better next year, because for large chunks of this one they just weren't good enough, not by a long stretch

sussexpob wrote:Well, I take it youve gone to bed

If England hadn't been a goal down to an awful penalty decision, I probably would have done

Soft pen but I thought the Maguire one was a pen. Grealish being caught off-side was a schoolboy error. He was looking across and went too early. Good work from Saka though.

Bring on the euros

Gingerfinch wrote:Soft pen but I thought the Maguire one was a pen.

well, yes. Ref had a shocker from start to finish, and I think he only got the yellow cards out when players got angry at his awful decisions and reacted

I couldn't help but laugh at the Maguire thing. Was 10 seconds of pure comedy football.... and a clear as day penalty.

draw for the European Championships next year

Group A: Germany, Hungary, Scotland, Switzerland
Group B: Spain, Albania, Croatia, Italy
Group C: England, Denmark, Slovenia, Serbia
Group D: France, Austria, Netherlands, play-off winner A
Group E: Belgium, Romania, Slovakia, play-off winner B
Group F: Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic, play-off winner C

Spain, Croatia and Italy is tasty....

Gordon starts tonight for England. I'm very pleased for him.... he fully deserves his chance

(he'd better not get injured)