Just seen on SS News that starting line up will be.....

Robinson
Neville Ferdinand Terry Cole
Gerrard Hargreaves Lampard Downing
Crouch Defoe

seems to me downing has got the best deal with mcclaren being the new boss, because hes been playing for him over last few years.

Why no rooney?

Why no rooney?

banned..... not remember the world cup?

although dint think bannings would also apply for friendlies hmmmm

banned..... not remember the world cup?

although dint think bannings would also apply for friendlies hmmmm

thats what i was thinking, ah well..

Suprised to see defoe, mind u its a different manager. Thank God.

No Walcott?

No Walcott?

scored for u21's last night. by all means he played well with nugent

well 2-0 to England, its a bit of a easy game at the moment.

oh well its 3-0 now

4-0 now, talk about easy game............ Robinsons might as well read a magazine

lets remember one thing, if we had Sven Goran Twatiksson involved now we would be 0-0 or 1-0 up at best, and the latter leaving the second half nail biting with his "sit back" routine.

The players look like they have all got a new lease of life and enjoying their football, a good start for Steve lets hope this is the start of a new era for english football.

They played well enough in the first half. Team looks much better with gerrard on the right and lampard and hargreaves in the centre.

Thank christ Terry Venables is back in the england setup.
Did you see the england team actually attacking with pace and venom in the first half- remind anyone of when venables was managing us.. it was wonderful to watch the 1st half.

Just watched great match. Second half was a bit flat but still enjoyable.
Downing was still sh*@e though. Not aggressive enough, like he didn't want to get his boots dirty.

Thought Downing played ok.

Good little win for England and a great way to kick off Macca's new reign as the England manager.

England vs Greece Goals (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY_XZvCtnT8)

England vs Greece Highlights (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJdCvDWrGVw)

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Republic Of Ireland vs Holland Goals (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZQPdyu9jWI)

Regarding Terry Venables, despite his unsuccessful tenure with Leeds he is a very good coach and I was very pleased to see him involved in the England setup.

As an England national fan I have a renewed sense of optimism, it is refreshing to see an all English setup and an astute coach like Mac at the helm.

Most enjoyable England match I have seen for a long time. We actually played with some purpose and desire and the players looked as though they knew what they were doing and were even enjoying it !!!! OK, second half was a little bit flat but at least it was a good start.

Most enjoyable England match I have seen for a long time. We actually played with some purpose and desire and the players looked as though they knew what they were doing and were even enjoying it !!!! OK, second half was a little bit flat but at least it was a good start.

Have to agree there, it was a enjoyable first half, and yes second half was a bit flat in parts and they did play better, but 4-0 up we didn`t need to go overboard, plus they have not had much match practise either.

A good sign though.

Second half was poor, though the players can be forgiven as they were 4-0 up.

I thought Defoe's perfomance hardly did him any favours: constantly off-side; went down too easily; failed to chase balls he could easily have intercepted

Hargreaves played well (again), and some pace on the wings was a welcome sight.

Cole also had a decent game, though was caught out on the break a couple of times.

I thought Defoe's perfomance hardly did him any favours: constantly off-side;

agreed, there was times when all he had to do was drop a little, but he wasn't watching the line

Well done to Ferdinand for making runs now and again cos even the goalkeeper got taken off cos he had no action! Well done Rio.

For me the best aspect of this game was the midfield, Sven’s insistence in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary that Gerrard and Lampard could work together in central midfield, along with his inability to see that Beckham was no longer the top class player of a few years crippled England for far too long.

With a holding midfielder willing and able to do just that and no longer having to carry Beckham; Lampard and Gerrard looked rejuvenated and restored to something approaching their club roles were able to play with the freedom that makes them so effective for Chelsea and Liverpool I just don’t understand why Sven was so unable to see this for so long.

Downing was pretty good to that he was able to both cross or come inside gave more variety to our play down the left and meant that the play didn’t keep on getting held up like it often does with Joe Cole who seems to keep on trying to run the ball into the opposition box through a whole mess of opposing players. He still needs more games in an England shirt to get his confidence up but overall he had a good game.

Defoe seemed a bit rusty getting caught offside so many times but he did a lot of running and dragged the defence about creating space for Crouch to work in he also made so good passes.