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- Reggy Mourinho

Well, how rubbish was last night’s poor defeat to Russia? I felt in the 2nd half the team just lost the plot. They couldn’t pass a ball to a team mate if their life depended on it, they couldn’t keep the ball and even though it may have bobbled around on the crappy plastic pitch, that’s no excuse for losing a 1-0 lead to the Russians! Speaking of Russians, it seemed the Big Roman (Abramovich) does know how to laugh and smile after all, shame he can’t do the same at Chelsea - there must be something to laugh at, I dunno, like Michael Ballacks pay slip seeing as he hasn’t played a competitive game since like forever?!

Anyway, back to England, what on earth was McClaren thinking bringing his subs on with about 12 minutes to go when everyone knows that the team with the advantage will time waste at least 8 of those last 12 minutes hanging around the corner or purposely putting the ball out of play. That man couldn’t manage a team of ladies bowls! (No offence meant to Ladies what play bowls) I know Frank is a magician whose lost his wand at the moment, so to speak, but even he can’t conjour something out of 12 minutes. What a poor show.

And don’t get me started on Rooney! Penalty, hard done by? Who are they trying to kid. It may have been close to the edge of the box but if Ronney will launch himself like a flying fox over a player he’s just clipped the heel of to try and hide that little misdemeaner, what does he expect? And as if anyone in the country believed Robinson was going to redeem himself and save the penalty. Oh, and Mr Robinson, if you are going to make a decent save in the game, make sure you don’t push the ball in the direction of a Russian player who is hovering about 4 foot away, even if he is surrounded by 2 england dingbat defenders.

I think to be a little bit fair, most of the players didn’t commit themselves in the game for fear of plastic carpet burns and jarred knees from the crappy pitch, fair dincum (Alf Stewart) but there was still no england magic to speak of in the 2nd half, only a few half chances that should have been taken had the Russians not hounded them for the last half an hour, how do you say - peppering the goal?

Anyway, so thats my little rant over for now, don’t think I’ll be booking my Euro 2008 hotel just yet!

Yours, angry as ever, no eggs here,

Reggy Mourinho

Oh, just one final thing, the Rooney goal was just fabby-dabby-dozy - the little flick on off the little head of little Owen, which Rooners caught on his chest and booted on the half volley was just ’sweet’!

Here’s my theme tune in case you’ve not heard it in a few days:

Oh, here is the BBC’s official match report from www.bbc.co.uk/sport

GERRARD RECKONS WE’RE DONE FOR

Steven Gerrard concedes that England are unlikely to qualify for Euro 2008 after Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat by Russia. England need to beat Croatia and hope Russia fail to defeat either Israel or Andorra to qualify for next summer’s tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

“It is looking doubtful,” said the Liverpool midfielder. “We will see it out until the end and, hopefully, Israel can do us a favour.”

“It’s out of hands so we have to hope and pray,” said striker Wayne Rooney. “Of course it’s difficult. We have to hope Israel can help us out and then hopefully win against Croatia.”

The defeat has intensified the pressure on England boss Steve McClaren, who faces the prospect of being the first manager to fail to lead England to the finals of a major tournament since Graham Taylor in 1994. And Taylor told BBC 5Live: “If Steve does go he’ll be the sixth England manager to go in the last 17 years, compared with four in the previous 28 years. “Changing the manager is not necessarily the answer. What we have to look at is our record in international football over so many years. It’s poor.” He added: “I thought it was a great game, fantastic atmosphere but the wrong result.

“Russia were first class. What they play is a short passing and very swift game. “We do not play that at international level. That’s not in our culture. We’ve got to look much deeper at what we expect properly and rightly expect from our national side. “If you look over the years we have not been successful. There is something deeper than just the manager.”

Gerrard was the stand-in captain against Russia because of central defender John Terry’s absence with a knee injury. “We had some chances to finish it or get it back but it didn’t really go our way” said England defender Sol Campbell.

“It’s a very shellshocked dressing room,” added Gerrard. “The players are hurting and down. “We need to take it on the chin, take responsibility for where we are and try to win our last game.”

Rooney put England ahead on the artificial surface of the Luzhniki Stadium but it was his challenge that led to Russia’s equaliser from the penalty spot. “It was a good goal but we are all devastated at the final result,” he said. “We all worked hard and defended well but two lapses in concentration cost us the game. “A few people have said the challenge was outside the area but that is irrelevant now, the referee has given the penalty.”

Right-back Micah Richards failed to get a touch at the far post as he failed to take a chance with centre-back Sol Campbell also heading high as England let another opening go begging. Campbell was one of the team’s best performers and he said: “We had some chances to finish it or get it back but it didn’t really go our way. “It’s not a happy dressing room because we let ourselves down a little bit.”

England keeper Paul Robinson has faced doubts over his form in the last few months and he could only parry Alexei Berezutsky’s shot and allow Roman Pavluchenko to stab in the winner. “I just parried it and maybe didn’t get enough on it,” he said. “I was unlucky not to get the second one.” He added: “We’ve got to pick ourselves up and deal with what we are left with. It seems like a kick in the teeth. It’s difficult to take.”