Land of hope and nagging and moaning

What do you want from the England national team? Professionalism? Excitement? Entertainment? Or is it all about the results?

Last night England beat Kazakhstan 5-1. Call me easy to please but that's plenty good enough. Yes, I agree the scoreline doesn't even tell half the story. The team struggled to get ahead, and the touch and balance was largely absent. But it wasn't through any lack of pride or professionalism or effort. And, in the end, it didn't matter. We won, and we won convincingly. For me, the two most important criteria - effort and result - were met.

From the moment England went in at half time, it was inevitable that the newspapers would be sharpening the knives for the morning. The supporters became audibly frustrated before England took the lead. But let's be honest - who goes to Wembley expecting to be entertained? If you do, you need your head checking in my opinion. World Cup Qualifiers are all about results, and England are top of their group. Oh, and we've scored nine goals in two games.

Again, accept that last night's win wasn't as convincing as it seemed, but we didn't even qualify for Euro 2008 - let's get behind Fabio Capello, seeing as he's getting the results right. The entertainment can come when we're qualifying for tournaments and succeeding once we get there. For now, let's concentrate on the basics.


Then, of course, we have the Ashley Cole situation. Cole made an absolutely criminal error at 2-0 which led directly to Zhambyl Kukeyev dragging Kazakhstan back into the game. One or two moans and groans would be totally understandable, and Cole deserves a proper pasting from Capello for his mistake. But a large section of the Wembley crowd booed him every time he touched the ball from that point on.

You could almost hear the club rivalries in the boos, and I found myself surprisingly uncomfortable with that. It makes you wonder why people go to international matches, given that the Wembley crowd has been a) served a load of crap for years and b) uneasy and ugly for a long old while. In short, the only thing which happened last night which was more unacceptable than Cole's mistake was his treatment by the fans.

In other Wembley news, surely now we can all see at last that Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard can't play together. They weren't bad, but the balance was lacking - it was slightly disheartening to see Gareth Barry carry the can for that, but he doesn't play for any of the so-called 'Big Four', so it's to be expected. I thought Lampard was rather good, certainly better than Gerrard, and Wayne Rooney showed flashes of brilliance which have been missing in an England shirt for too long.

Finally, congratulations to Emile Heskey. 'Rollerskates' put in another fantastic performance for England. As a Villa fan, I found it odd to be rooting for Heskey to score, but he certainly deserved one. Well done Big Emile and, by and large, well done England. We're going to South Africa and that's all that matters.

Isn't it?

(Photo Credits: BBC Sport)