England Put The Nation To Sleep In Dull 1-0 Win Against Norway

The game started with just over 40,000 fans in attendance, and by the 50th minute, I'm sure the majority of them had wished they'd stayed at home. After the game Roy Hodgson commented that England's qualifying group wouldn't draw the crowds, my simple response to that is it's not the opponents that are keeping us away.

England plodded along, finally getting a shot on target with the only goal of the game, a Rooney penalty after some decent work by Raheem Sterling down the left. Although England dominated possession for much of the night, they only managed to get two shots on target and although Roy pointed to the heroic defending of the Norwegians, England fans were left pointing fingers at a team unable to create clear chances.

Although at times the passing from free flowing and the obvious connection between Sterling and Sturridge was encouraging, it was just a gentle reminder to the nation why many fans elect to put their club football ahead of their country. We play boring football and we're in a very difficult pattern to break right now. I can guarantee you we'll eek our way through the qualifying group, somewhere in there we will have an impressive 5-0 or 6-1 performance, but in the end we'll come up short during the competition in two years time.

We look weak at the back, there is a lack of creative inspiration up top and we don't have that mean streak in front of goal. Players just can't re-create their club form for their country. When England take on Switzerland next week, we'll all tune in as we love football and we want to see the England team do well, but when the likes of San Marino come to Wembley will we want to go out and watch that? a probable 3-0 win for England? I doubt it.

There really isn't a great deal to say on last nights performance. It was as boring as the stat line and the final score suggested.