Sunny Interlude

You’ve got to hand it to Shaun Wright-Phillips. Even though his masters at Chelsea do not often allow him the opportunity to play football, he made an immediate impact as a 69th minute substitute for dismal Stewart Downing. He had a strike at goal with his very first touch and then he proceeded to do something which no England player seemed to have thought of – he ran at the Macedonia defence and took them on.

Talk about shock tactics. In no time at all he’d forced his way to the edge of the box and nicked the ball square for Steven Gerrard to thunder a shot against the crossbar. It was the nearest England came to scoring and from their point of view the only genuinely exciting moment in the game.

Though whether it will get him into the starting line-up against Croatia, a game which Gerrard misses through suspension, is another matter entirely.