England v Malta

In two minds to put this on non football.

We are rubbish an own goal. Is all we have got after 60 mins.

Quoted from grimsby pete

In two minds to put this on non football.

We are rubbish an own goal. Is all we have got after 60 mins.

Dreadful, Pete, dreadful.

Haven’t England got a real left back ?

We have just woke up 2 goals in under 2 mins Kane but Rice was offside or someone was.

So 2-0  after 80 mins.

Considering how much it costs to go to a game at Wembley the England players have short changed the support.

Absolute rubbish. Painful to watch.

Thank goodness that's over.

I have seen town play rubbish and they were better than that.

FT 2-0

Been watching paint dry, luckily I forgot to watch the game.  

A mid-club season dead rubber is a excrement game. What a shocker!

Malta will be over the moon. Tbf they're not the worst international side I've seen,  despite their pitiful ranking

Dion Dublin summarised things well:  

the keeper had nothing to do, the defence conceded too many chances that a better team would make count.  The defence need to be better.  The midfield also need to be better.  The strikers need to score more goals.

Apart from that we are ok.

Nice to see Notts Jodie Jones get a run out fir Malta

Quoted from Chalky

Nice to see Notts Jodie Jones get a run out fir Malta

Yes I see he got on the pitch I thought I wonder is chalky watching.

If a group of such talented and usually lively players (Henderson aside) can put in such a dreadful and clueless performance, you can sort of understand how the much less-talented GTFC players can often do the same.

It really was utterly dismal.

They should have been piping Dublin's commentary over the PA system. Might have given one or two of them a clue of what they should be doing.

TAA is not a midfielder. Gallacher looks like the new Henderson to me (though a bit quicker), which is a big problem when he's playing alongside the old Henderson.

Foden looked to be trying and did OK, Kane barely received the ball (and I didn't mind seeing him booked for diving after he moved his foot into the keeper's body), Rice improved things a bit, but not much credit for anybody else in that team.

We now deduce - England have a strong first 11, with a few reliable subs. The rest of the squad are probably Scotland-level, which means we may fall short again.

Trippier too old. Henderson too old and should be retired through principle anyway. Tomori probably not good enough. Gallagher just a runner.

With stones, rice and Bellingham we are class. With Sterling back, if Southgate can get over himself, we’ll be ready. But he’ll let his conservative ego get in the way and we’ll fall short again. Which breaks my heart, I’ve seen town reach highs and lows during my time, but never seen England manage what we want and deserve. And is p#sses me off!

Hurstball

I switch on after half time and switched back off after 10mins. Boring.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Considering how much it costs to go to a game at Wembley the England players have short changed the support.

To be fair, I’ve just got tickets for the Brazil game in March for me and my lad, only cost £60 for both, didn’t think that was too bad.

Im amazed 80,000 leople turn up for these kinds of games.  Dont they have better things to do with their friday?

I am sure no.other internatiomal team would get anywhere close in terms of attendance.

I have to say i rarely watch any qualifiers.... its generallly drab stuff with no jeopardy

Won. Clean sheet. Did enough. Tournament football is all about that.


Awful watch mind ...and I only watched the second half.

One concern I have is that as Harry Kane plays every game how can Southgate see If Watkins, Wilson etc are good enough, if Kane gets an injury in the first game at next year’s competition we could be in trouble.

Not much better against North Macedonia so far.

Quoted from Gaffer58

One concern I have is that as Harry Kane plays every game how can Southgate see If Watkins, Wilson etc are good enough, if Kane gets an injury in the first game at next year’s competition we could be in trouble.

You've got your wish.....

Quoted from promotion plaice

Not much better against North Macedonia so far.

Thought it was MK Dons.

Maguire does his best to concede a penalty but the ref isn't having it.

Must say the stewards/ security around the side of the pitch is most impressive.

How is Maguire’s not but that is?

Quoted from LH

How is Maguire’s not but that is?

The standard of officials at all levels just gets worse and worse, penalty was bad enough decision but to book him as well, appalling, a bit like the game and England’s drab performance

As per my earlier comment, with Kane coming on and scoring, basically with his first touch the let’s hope he doesn’t get injured, if he does we’re in trouble up front.

I don’t think this refs ever seen football played before let alone reffed it.

Quoted from LH

I don’t think this refs ever seen football played before let alone reffed it.

Dare I say that we’ve had better refs at BP?

Let's be honest any country would miss Kane , he's probably the best striker in the world now .

Quoted from Mappers

Let's be honest any country would miss Kane , he's probably the best striker in the world now .

And yet amusingly has as many senior footballing medals as I do.

Good job we are not playing the whole of Macedonia

A dreadful performance tonight against North Macedonia.

Not helped by terrible refereeing but we really should do better than this.

If the word turgid didn't exist, it would have to be invented to describe these last two games.

On the plus side there's plenty of so called overlooked players who've staked a claim to being left at home next summer.

Every time I think town are poor England play even worse.

Town players have an excuse they are L2 for a reason but England are supposed to be among the best in the world.

Only bright spot for me was our young left back Lewis only 18 he has a bright future for club and country.

Never a pen.

Dion Dublin / the referee - difficult to know who was worst.
Dion can't have played football for 20 years; why do they keep employing these pundits who have feck all knowledge of the modern game.
Best moments included that he felt able to ascertain it should've been a corner from 200m away and that Rashford would change the game and would scare the living daylights out of the Macedonian right back. All Marcus did was to shank a free kick closer to the corner flag than the goal and then just ran the ball out of play

Well that's 100 minutes of my life I'll never get back, what a steaming pile of sh1te ! I'm sick to death of this backwards sideways, backwards sideways crap. No creativity, slow, ponderous approach, bloody rubbish.
Southgate should be sacked ASAP and we should BEG Guardiola to take over before we waste another "golden generation"
Anybody who seriously believes that this rabble can win the euro's is deluded !
Total crap !

After two games of jogging around, passing the ball sideways and backwards and doing very little else in general, is that enough time for the Alexander-Arnold midfield 'experiment' to be given a go?

No idea why Lewis was playing tonight. He's too young and lightweight at the moment and shouldn't be near the England squad (though he was unfortunate for the daft penalty). For reference, he's started about half the first team games that Rooney had when he made his debut and he's certainly no Rooney. If he gets a bit of game time somewhere or other, plenty of time for him to develop in the future but, like Palmer, will he get enough time on the pitch at Citeh?

Maguire, clumsy and out of form, of course, but Walker certainly didn't help out much tonight and I'm not fully convinced by Guehi yet. Hopefully, Stones is fit and in form next summer!

Well that was fun  NOT.At least i know how many flowers are on the wallpaper thats on the fire breast lol

I know we had already qualified, the ref was awful and no one wanted to get crocked, but...

There is no such thing as a dead rubber in international football. Not for me, anyway.

It's your country. You should want to go out there and bust a gut, every time. Representing your country in the sport you love should be an absolute privilege, but again I feel there are players out there who just coast.

I'm sure we'll improve when the Euros start, and we won't field a team like the ones we fielded over this weekend.

However, we hand England caps out like confetti. For some of those lads tonight, they have more chance playing for England than they do their clubs. How's that happened?!

When you think of players like Steve Bruce (0 caps), Matt Le Tissier (8 caps) and Andy Cole (1 goal), all at their absolute peak, and how little they played for England. Getting England caps back in the day was rock.

Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield is an experiment worth ditching now. What's the point of Kalvin Phillips? Can't get in Man City's starting XI, can't get in the England side, but keeps being involved. What's his contribution? If he's not playing in the PL and not in form, we've got to start looking elsewhere.

I know we want to blood some youngsters but some get super fast-tracked and I'm not sure that's the answer. Someone like Ward-Prowse has barely had a look-in despite being the best set-piece taker in the PL.

Not saying he's the answer but now more than ever it feels like whatever Southgate's grand plan is, it's becoming more and more frayed around the edges.

Well Malta / North Macedonia, whichever one it is - could have been better by England.
Gareth is trying to put square pegs in round holes.
Luckily he can afford to do that (no idea why)   - prior to final stages of the competition

Quoted from denni266

Well that was fun  NOT.At least i know how many flowers are on the wallpaper thats on the fire breast lol

The suspense is killing me..

I thought that the referee was absolutely appalling and I cannot remember the last time a referee was as bad as this one, even at Conference level. I don’t think he was bent but I do think he was very biased. Having said that, that is no excuse for how poor England were.

Quoted from Sir Matt Tease

Well that's 100 minutes of my life I'll never get back, what a steaming pile of sh1te ! I'm sick to death of this backwards sideways, backwards sideways crap. No creativity, slow, ponderous approach, bloody rubbish.
Southgate should be sacked ASAP and we should BEG Guardiola to take over before we waste another "golden generation"
Anybody who seriously believes that this rabble can win the euro's is deluded !
Total crap !

Unfortunately this is creeping into the game at all levels.  Take for instance, FGR at the weekend, every time they played it out from the back it looked like they were going to mess it up, and would have done if we had pressed a little higher up.