[jambutty]

ITV showed the highlights yesterday after the 10 o’clock news. Better late than never I guess.

Now I know that you cannot judge a whole match from half an hour’s worth of highlights but it seemed to me that England’s success was down to preventing Croatia playing the way that they wanted to in the beginning and that got them frustrated and wild. Getting the first goal was a bombshell for the Croats especially as they have never lost a competitive home match for years, if ever. Boots and elbows went in and the ref was too weak to do anything about it.

David James was shaky but the rest of the team performed to their potential. We need a younger ‘keeper between the sticks for the next home game to prepare for a regular place.

The only thing that marred the match for me was the ‘Micky taking’ passing in midfield towards the end of the match, not once but twice. It wasn’t clever, it wasn’t smart and it wasn’t professional. It is infantile and unbecoming and it only showed that the arrogance was still in house. There is no room for extracting the urine in professional football, or amateur for that matter. True greats do not belittle their opponents in this way.

Fans shouldn’t get carried away because this win of 3 – 1 was against a 10 man demoralised team. Yes I know the score was 4 – 1. I was referring to the score during the second half.

Well done England but it is only a start. You've got a long way to go to become a world beating team.