What a bunch of muppets!

England were given an unlikely lifeline when Israel beat Russia last weekend, and we only needed a draw against Croatia to qualify for the Euro Championships. So what do we do? Lose. T

The first goal conceded was a howler from Carson when he didn't get his body behind the ball and it rolled off his arms into the top of the net. The second one, England's defence were asleep and Croatia easily beat our attempt at an offside trap. Embarrassing. I fail to see why McLaren left it until half time to make the changes - it was clear the formation wasn't working the way it was. Anyway, Beckham and Defoe came on second half and instantly, things improved. I will never say a bad word against David; he has consistently been England's backbone for the past however many years. Defoe won a penalty which may have been harsh but there was a definite tugging of his shirt. Lampard easily converted it. Then came a brilliantly accurate cross from who else? and Crouch took it on his chest and banged it in from a few yards out. All that hard work was undone though when Croatia took the lead again and despite having chances, England failed to score again which was curtains for them. Had Andorra levelled against Russia it would have been a different story but how many times can we rely on other teams to save our bacon? Andorra haven't won in 29 Euro matches so there wasn't much hope anyway.

So England won't be there next summer - the lads can have a holiday instead. I don't feel overly disappointed because we didn't deserve it. If we can't beat teams in these qualifying groups, what chance do we have against the best? Well done England - we're proud of you! I suppose it's now back to basics and trying to find a new mug who wants to take the manager's job!