England win easily so why do I feel less than happy? I could be Scottish!

All’s well that ends well, I suppose. England beat Kazakhstan 5-1 at Wembley yesterday evening and you can’t ask for much more than that. Kazakhstan are rarely beaten by more than three goals and England did a professional job against them and can move on to the more difficult test in Belarus on Wednesday evening.

Not quite as rosy

If you look a little closer at last night’s game it doesn’t all look quite as rosy as it sounds. For fifty-two minutes, England failed to break down the visitors and the players were starting to look tense and the fans were staring to sound frustrated and disappointed. Kazakhstan put eleven men behind the ball but why wouldn’t why?

Skipper Rio Ferdinand eventually stepped up to head England into the lead and all of a sudden, things were looking a little better. When an own goal put England 2-0 up it all looked very comfortable. Then a horror show from Ashley Cole gifted Kazakhstan a goal and the nerves resurfaced again. The crowd decided, inexplicably, to boo Ashley Cole after his mistake. England fans can be a strange breed. Just when a player needs lifting, the fans decide to hit him hard. Sometimes you wonder whether the word ‘supporter’ is the right word.

Wayne Rooney

A Wayne Rooney header put England two goals clear again and his second made the game safe at 4-1. Those two goals and an all round decent performance earned the in-form Rooney the man of the match award. Substitute Jermaine Defoe put the icing on the cake with a fifth goal after a sublime touch by Emile Heskey and the fact is that you can’t argue with a 5-1 win.

As I have said, Kazakhstan are rarely thrashed and England haven’t scored five goals in a game since that wonderful night in Germany seven years ago. All in all it is difficult to criticise what was, in the end, a professional performance.

Dire

The first half saw Capello try to play a four-three-three formation which simply didn’t work. It was, in all truth, pretty dire. After half time he switched to a four-four-two and England immediately looked more comfortable.

OK, Shaun Wright-Phillips kept running down blind alleys on the left and Theo Walcott couldn’t put a foot right on the right. OK, the midfield partnership of Gerrard and Lampard didn’t really work and the ‘can they play together’ argument will go on. OK, we conceded a sloppy goal and we didn’t look like world beaters, but we won 5-1 and that is all that mattered in the end.

Sterner opposition

Belarus will provide much sterner opposition and England will have to sharpen up all over the pitch to pick up three points on Wednesday. Capello’s reaction to Ashley Cole’s mistake was quite funny, but I would worry for my place in the team if I were Ashley.

I also think that if we decide to play a four-four-two, which I think we will as we are invariably better when we do, that Gareth Barry will find himself in the starting eleven and Capello will decide between Gerrard and Lampard as to who will play alongside him. Of course, with Joe Cole being unavailable and Wright-Phillips looking obviously out of position, Capello could play Gerrard on the left.

Disappointed

I don’t know why I feel a little bit disappointed after the game as we have won our last two games 4-1 and 5-1. That’s pretty good form whichever way you look at it. Nine points out of nine, top of the group and scoring for fun. I should be jumping up and down with joy but I’m not. I just don’t know why.

Enough about England! For the Scots, yesterday was a very bad day indeed. They needed to get all three points from their home game against Norway but they ended up drawing 0-0 in a disappointing game and a disappointing performance.

Open target

You have to feel particularly sorry for Chris Iwelumo who came on as a substitute to make his international debut at the age of thirty and somehow managed to miss the open target from three yards.

In truth, although Scotland had a majority of the possession, they never really did enough to deserve to win the game. Norway always looked dangerous on the break and Scotland keeper Craig Gordon certainly earned his money.

Four points from three games will not be enough for Scotland and they are already hoping for other teams to do them a favour.

England or Scotland

So would I rather be an England fan or Scotland fan? Well, England, obviously, but I have a certain amount of jealousy towards fans who have limited expectations rather than me who watches my team win 5-1 and feels disappointed afterwards!