Dour England draw another blank

Eck of a start or Scotland

Historic day for national stadiums

—– England’s goal drought continues in a dour goalless draw in Israel as their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign stumbles along its uninspiring way.
With Israel refusing to break their defensive ranks, an unimaginative England attack struggles to carve out any clear cut chances.
It means they have now gone five games without a goal to equal the worst-ever run under Ron Greenwood in 1981.
Breaking from his usual upbeat demeanour, current boss Steve McClaren struggles to hide his frustration: “We have got players who can score goals. They packed the defence and it was always going to be hard.
“We have to be ruthless in front of goal and we weren’t ruthless enough. Either it didn’t fall for us or it was poor quality or poor decision-making.”
Not for the first time, he’d said this was the time for the England players to deliver. Once again, they haven’t.
With Russia and Croatia both winning, England find themselves three points adrift of the top two in Group E.

—– In Alex McLeish’s first game in charge of the national team, Scotland win their fourth game in five qualifying outings to stay top of Group B.
They beat Georgia 2-1 at Hampden Park with a dramatic late winner from substitute Craig Beattie.
The proud new boss hails a magnificent start: “It was quite a day. I was really excited by the welcome from the fans when we came out of the tunnel. It was like a cup final.”

—– David Healy becomes the first-ever Northern Ireland player to score two hat-tricks as they keep their qualification hopes very much alive with a 4-1 win in Liechtenstein.
The Leeds United striker fires the Irish in to second place in Group F.
He says: “You don’t score many hat-tricks in your career so to grab two in the same qualifying series is special.
“They got men behind the ball in the first half but we broke them down in the second and hopefully we can now go on and qualify for a major tournament.”

—– In an historic day for the game in Ireland, the Republic move level on points with the Czech Republic in second place in Group D as they beat Wales 1-0 at Croke Park.
With Lansdowne Road being re-developed, the Dublin venue - which is steeped in Irish tradition and politics - stages its first-ever game of association football.
In front of a crowd of 72,539, with immense irony, the match-winning goal is scored by Manchester City’s Stephen Ireland.

—– It’s also an historic day for England’s national stadium as the new Wembley stages its first game 2,358 days after the old stadium closed its doors for the last time.
There’s no sign of a white horse on the pitch, but a record crowd of 55,700 for an England Under-21s game witness a richly entertaining 3-3 draw against their counterparts from Italy.
Having suffered so many delays, it’s somewhat ironic that the historic opening goal is scored after only 28 seconds.
It shatters the stadium record of 38 seconds for the quickest international goal set by Bryan Robson against Yugoslavia in 1989.
The goalscorer is Fiorentina striker Giampaolo Pazzini who goes on to score the first hat-trick at the new stadium.
He becomes the second Italian to net a Wembley hat-trick after Gennaro Ruotolo of Genoa in the 5-2 Anglo-Italian Cup Final win over Port Vale in 1996.
The honour of being the first Englishman to score at the new Wembley goes to David Bentley of Blackburn Rovers.
And a quiz question for years to come; Newcastle United assistant manager Nigel Pearson is the first coach to lead an English team out at the new Wembley as Under-21s head coach Stuart Pearce is only contracted for competitive matches.

—– Scunthorpe United retain top spot in League One with a 2-2 draw at Leyton Orient. Leading scorer Billy Sharp’s last gasp equaliser is his 50th goal for the North Lincolnshire club.
It’s a vital goal as the chasing pack all win; Bristol City 1-0 at Doncaster Rovers, Nottingham Forest 3-0 against Cheltenham Town at the City Ground and Yeovil Town 1-0 against Chesterfield at Huish Park.

—– With the top five in League Two not in action until tomorrow, sixth-placed Stockport County prove once and for all that it is a funny old game.
Three week as after completing a Football League record of nine consecutive wins without conceding a goal, the Hatters lose 2-7 at home to Rochdale. It’s the first time they have ever conceded seven goals in a game at Edgeley Park.
That’s nothing to the despair that must be being felt by Torquay United. The 0-1 defeat at Shrewsbury Town leaves the Gulls ten points adrift of safety with only seven games to play.
They appear distained for the Conference but the second relegation place appears set to go down to the wire with five teams divided by three points after Wrexham’s 1-0 win at Bristol Rovers.