It would have been past Green before he even moved, mind you, a pub goalie would have been gutted at not saving that. Hart is a poor England player, he wouldnt have even made the squad 20 years ago, what happened to our great goalies? **** me, Wellbeck scored, thats his ration for the season.
Maybe I'm alone in this, but just as I was thinking that Wellbeck is lucky to even be near the squad, that twonk Townsend gives him MOTM... I've rarely seen a less inspiring striker playing for England - he never plays the simple, effective pass, choosing to either play the flashy ball that gets cut out, or holding onto the ball until he is tackled. he never runs back, and the goal tonight was the furthest out I've ever seen him score - every other goal he gets is a tap-in thanks to good work by others. Tonight was a typical example - he was terrible for all but about 10 seconds of the match. Townsend must have been watching a different game. MOTM for me was either Wallcott or maybe Baines.
The opposition goalies have been great so far. I give credit when its due but Green has been awful and Hart was at fault for that goal.
My second hand sky box is somehow tuned to Scottish ITV1 which means I watched the match from a Scottish perspective! Saving was grace was Alan Brazil on co-commentary, a welcome relief from Townsend and those other muppets back in the studio.
I thought Welbeck had a decent game. Rooney however was poor as ever - the most overrated England player of his generation.
Scotland were certainly more up for it than England who looked a bit disjointed in the first half. The Scots, despite their lack of top quality, were a better collective and worked well for each other. Hart's howler was typical of England's 'training game' attitude in the first half. The substitutes livened things up in the second half and it was great to see Lambert do so well on his debut, but you feel he was suited to the 'British' style of game last night and might not be as effective against better opposition. A great atmosphere and the Scots contributed to that greatly, however, there were two huge empty areas which is disappointing leaving it nearly 10,000 short of capacity, but perhaps not surprising as for three of us with tickets, travelling, meals and drinks there was little change out of £200...
Only just had a chance to log on here.........back late from Wembley and then had a ridiculously busy day at work. Firstly, it was a fantastic atmosphere in the ground. The scots were manic, but the ones we encountered were friendly enough. A huge thanks to IwasanotherwatfordR for supplying the tickets. Our seats were behind the goal where the Scottish lot were which made things quite interesting, although the Club Wembley section we were in was mainly England fans or corporate types who were barely watching the game!! Me and Will tried to get them going but they were too busy with their "prawn sarnies"!! The lower section in front of us was all England and we tried to join in with them. There were a few Scots in our section, with one a couple of seats away and after their rousing rendition of "Flower of Scotland" I shook his hand and said "nice one". TBH I don't think he knew whether to smile or chin me!! (At the end, he shook my hand and apologised for the Scots booing our Anthem. Fair play to him). Needless to say that me and Will puffed out our chests and sang it at the top of our voices!! It was a very exciting game, more like a cup tie and definitely NOT friendly. I thought England were good going forward and I liked that starting 6 further forward. The defence were dodgy though and I would play Johnson, Jones, Cahill and Cole in the next qualifier. I like Baines and his delivery is superb, but he's not a top International like Cole imo. The noise was deafening at our end at times, but we tried to give as good as we got and the roars when England scored hit us like a wave of sound. Brilliant header by Lambert.......pleased for him....good player. A couple of comments on things said on this thread: I thought Wellbeck played well and usually does for England. He also scores goals at International level (a rare quality). Rooney was not great, although he laid off a beautiful ball to Cleverley in the first half and was also wrongly flagged offside when he made a superb run into the box. He always needs games to get back to form. He isn't suddenly a poor player. If Wilshire had stayed on he would have been my MOTM.....best player on the pitch by a country mile imo. Scotland played well and surprised me with the quality of some of their play. However, England we very dominant as the stats show. 64% possession etc. All in all it was a tough game against the auld enemy and a cracking atmosphere to be part of. Well done England!!
I'm glad you and Will had a great night Col. I thought it was one of the best friendlies I'd watched for quite a while. I think we should bring back the home internationals and play them instead of the pointless friendlies we usually have to suffer.
Very true mate. Mind you, Mrs Rangercol did throw me a couple of her "sideways glances" when I was in full "match mode"!!
Cheers Dave. Been away for a while (determined to focus on job hunting, after the redundancy curse struck again just as the season was ending) so time on the boards has been very limited. Still looking for work, but now the summer break is over, I thought I'd pop back and see what's been going on...
