A thankless task

After a few days reflection I am moved to spare a thought for those poor folk who last week saw the writing on the wall for the England national side. From George Cohen to Alan Green the general feeling was England had blown it. The wisdom of going public with their condemnation of the nation was loud and certain. Now the outlook seems very different

Now after a weekend of results that put qualification back at the feet of tonight's starting XI, the dissenters are quiet. Possibly tonight's scoreline might vindicate their farsighted proniouncements

What I guess is slightly disappointing is that for anyone with any or many years of experience of football the possible outcome of Saturday in Tel Aviv were not even considered. Football journalism tends to get a really bad name and the laziness of this particular episode it easy to understand why.