For a game that England really needed to win this proved to be yet another incredibly frustrating performance. There are no excuses. Against Spain England had been outplayed both tactically and through aptitude. Crouch taken out of the game by the Spanish ‘non-jumping’ tactic. Against Israel all the possession (well that the back four had) that England had seemed to have no invention at all all.

Frank Lampard does not release the ball early enough. Lennon looked promising but had to check back in every time in order to cross on his right. Jamie Carragher is the most negative player England have as a left-back and yet kept getting the ball passed to him. Andy Johnson had little support up front. Gerrard… well he just kept drifting inside from the right meaning that there were big gaps into which there was no-one to receive the ball. Oh dear.

Around 4000 or so England fans made to the trip to the Holy-land. All of them were very disappointed. God Save the Queen was sung with the usual gusto but the Israeli’s had equally rousing chants (There was also a contingent of Brazillians who were in the Israel fan areas too. Very noisy before the game, practically silent throughout it though).

By the final whistle when John Terry, bless him, game over to the England fans to applaud the support the boos were all ready ringing out. Not for Terry, but for the manager who seems to have no idea. Change Neville for Richards - snap, change Lennon for Downing - left footed but close enough - snap. It’s like for like every time with the substitutions. Where is the element of ’something different’. Throw a bit of caution to the wind and let Terry and Ferdinand do a bit of defensive work as opposed to playing sweep all the time.

Tel Aviv itself, was as always, very welcoming and the Israeli people are very friendly. It’s my 5th trip there now and I enjoy it every time. We saw Glenn Hoddle in our hotel, along with the Sky Sports team.

So it’s now off to Barcelona for the Andora game. 5 - 0 last time. I think the England faithful will cheer and be chuffed with 1 - 0. Just cheering a goal will be enough. To draw the next game would surely have to be the end of McClaren.

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