An England fans view

As we walked down Wembley Way, we passed a group of middle class idiots who were naivly trying to get us to boycott the game as we were playing (and I quote) "the most racist country in the world" (obviously they've never heard of places like Zimbabwe. It was the "Free Palestine" brigade. The were screeching at us in embarrassing mid pitch, middle class voices, trying to hand out Palestinian flags and telling us how evil and dangerous a place Israel is. I can only assume it was a different Israel to the one I went to back in March. Still, that is the beauty of living in a (semi) free country. Everyone has freedom of speech.

I didn't actually get into the stadium built on the site of the old Wembley until about 15 minutes. A had one of my friends tickets and the engine on his bus had blown up on the way down to London so I thought "If I've got to watch this garbage, so has he" and waited until he arrived.

Thankfully, the escalators were working today and we soon got to our seats. We'd barely sat down when Joe Cole floated a cross to the fair post and Sean Wright-Phillips volleyed home from close range. As the half continued, this was an England performance that we'd waited a long time to see. We were 1-0 up and not just sitting back. The team looked balanced, we had a target man in Heskey who was causing problems and by half-time, we were reasonably happy.

As the 2nd half kicked off, we realised that during half time, we had discussed how early we'd leave the game which itself says something about the performance. Owen hit a stunning goal to make up for his first half miss and still we didn't sit back. Israel looked very average but in fairness, England made them look bad. They are a decent side who have a history before being difficult to break down, especially away from home. The 3rd goal came from Micah Richards who I think will go on to get a lot of caps for England. He is a very good defender and his attitude towards international is excellent.

So after 70 minutes, its looking very good. 3-0 up and playing well.....then the Ginger Sven decides to break what isn't broken. Off somes Heskey and Gerrard, on come Johnson and Neville. It killed the game stone dead. The performance went back to the level of pretty much every other game we've seen since the last good performance (2-1 at home to Poland in Oct 2005).

Then just as we thought things couldn't get worse, David Bentley came on. This clown turned down the opportunity to play for England U21s in the Euro Championships in the summer which itself is bad enough but he also did it once he'd been named in the squad meaning it was too late to call up a replacement. He was booed as he came and and apparently it continued every time he touched the ball. I don't know for sure as I'd walked out. I'm not watching a player who let his country down so badly just a few months earlier.

The game on Wednesday is still vital but confidence will be boosted after this 3-0 win. Common sense would dictate the Ginger clown picks the same starting line up but god knows what he will do as Fatty Lampard is available again.

Its like rudderless ship plough slowly towards an ice-berg. We can all see the crash is coming but what can be done to prevent it. The first friendly of the season at Wembley saw a German team (minus Ballack, Podolski and Klose among others) take on......well......we know the sort of performance England generally put on.

Lampard found space in the box (more through poor German marking than anything else) to give us an early lead and thoughts of Munich and 5-1 were in the air......you know....the home team took the lead and then got battered. By half time, the Jerries were 2-1 up, just as we were on that wonderful September night in Munich but for some reason, there were no more goals in the 2nd half.

So now we move to September and 2 vital games against Israel and Russia in Group E of the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. We have been told that its not a concern that we are falling behind the leaders as we have 4 of the last 5 games at home. However, when you realise that England's last home victory was against Andorra, exactly 12 months ago to the day of this post, you will understand why I don't share some of optimism.

Realistically, we will probably have to win all 4 home games and get a point in Russia to qualify. Anything less and we have to rely on other teams slipping up. I'm planning my summer 08 trips for Africa or America rather than Austria. Anyway, we get to go to Austria again as a friendly has been arranged in Vienna for November. Luckily, I managed to get a cheap flight and hotel otherwise I would have been very tempted to miss that game.

Midweek home games are becoming a definite candidate for watching on TV. I live less than 100 miles from London but its just so much effort to get over to Wembley and back again in mid-week to see more and more pathetic, feeble, passionless, inept performances. I know for a fact, a growing number of regulars are no longer going to mid-week games, friendly or competitive. I just wonder how long it will be until I join their numbers.