England played their first game since their exit from the world cup, and things seem to be much better under the reign of Steve Maclaren, he seems to allow more a free role for his key players, namely allowing new captain John Terry to move up-field to get into the action, and playing Steven Gerrard out on the right and giving him an almost free role to move into the centre. The margin of victory tonight was four goals to nil over a rather lacklustre European champions Greece. England ran riot in the first half scoring four times in 41 minutes, for which Greece clearly had no answers, with John Terry leading by example and scoring the first goal on the night and his second international goal for his country. Frank Lampard put the awful world cup behind him, doubling England’s lead, and then it was Peter Crouch who rounded out the scoring claiming two more to his England tally. I still think that Crouch doesn’t belong in the starting line up for England; he doesn’t seem to have any real skills, apart from being in the right place at the right time, much like Gary Lineker in the 80s and early 90s. But overall the change of captain and manager seems to have breathed new life into the team, although England were disappointing in the second half, taking their foot off the gas and absorbing what little pressure the Greeks could muster. England defended well, but I wish they went full out to score more in the second half to put an exclamation point on the night, but sadly it didn’t happen. Maclaren dropped Beckham completely from tonights match, and England didn’t miss him at all; personally I have always thought that Beckham was overrated and always got into the team because of his superstar status and Eriksson didn’t have the bottle to drop him because of the fear of a public backlash, so well done Steve Maclaren, and more of the same please!
Couple of quickies; firstly I didn’t go to the funeral on Monday, just thought that its pointless to open old wounds unnecessarily, I do feel a little guilty not going to the funeral, but it was for the best in the long run, really could do without another family feud. Second thing is that the debt collectors finally got back to me, and accepted my payment plan after the second Email which I know they read, read receipts are wonderful things, but elected to send me a letter instead, which is bizarre in this day and age. The first payment has been made, which puts me in the red again, but at least I know where I am financially now, so will be spending the minimum humanly possible to keep the overdraft in the check!