England B 1-2 Belarus

Ok, first things first. There is an important letter in the scoreline above, and that’s the B after England. If any of the doom-mongers out there really believe that last night’s performance has hammered our chances of winning the world cup then they are bigger fools than I give them credit for! Was the match ever touted as a full international? No it wasn’t. Does the result now mean that the England team are worse than Belarus? No it doesn’t. Last night was a match for learning. So what did we learn?

Well we learnt that Owen is hungry for football. Undoubtedly his injury knocked him a little but reports from the England camp say that he is training “better than he ever has before” and that his hunger is there. I think last night showed this. His runs into space were very good and his general contribution was one of the highlights of the match. Other highlights? Lennon looked very very good and I think may be the only player last night (who doesn’t already have a first team place) to prove himself worthy of a first team place. Crouch looked sharp but still not one of the top three in my opinion. Was there much else to impress the watching fans? Some solid performances but nothing outstanding. And your heart has to go out to Green who will now play no part in the World Cup due to a ruptured groin. Hopefully a speedy recovery will follow.