England v Ukraine

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

One of the frustrating aspects of following the England team is the collective denial of the commentariat of how incompetent we are as a team.

Even though we managed to scrape a victory tonight which reflects a significant improvement from the McClaren era when we probably would have only got a draw, nevertheless, it is obvious that we are incapable of challenging beyond a quarter final place in a competition.

We just beat a team that had no attacking ambition and hardly troubled our defence.

I didn't notice Lampard was playing and Gerard was absent the whole second half. Rooney was the most industrious player but showed huge lack of vision to not play in Crouch on one occasion and not to pull it back for Lampard on another.

In the end we had to rely on a Beckham free kick to get us out of trouble. Some things never change.

Tomorrow's papers will probably be full of praise and then wonder why we will fail at the first real hurdle in South Africa.

http://reuvenleigh.blogspot.com