Below Par

I like to compare international teams to clubs. Tonight, England were much like Birmingham City: lacking lustre against teams of a lower calibre than themselves (the olny difference being England have more shots on target, and don't have Roger Johnson or Scott Dann in defence. Or an angry Scotsman in midfield...)

I'm not quite sure who was more bored in the first half; Joe Hart or the rest of us. The best chance of the half came really early on, with Crouch a whisker away from getting his outstretched leg onto the end of a clever ball from Gerrard, but even his long legs couldn't get a touch. It was more of a game of possession for England in the first forty-five, rather than chances. We kept the ball very well, but just failed to do anything with it (yet again, reminding me of Blues..) and with the Montenegro goalkeeper flapping at a few shots he had to save, we really should've taken the bull by the horns and taken advantage.

There was a large amount of freekicks and corners for England, in a half they dominated, but they couldn't make anything out of the set pieces they were awarded, which was disappointing to say the least. Young and Johnson both made some promising runs on both flanks, but, like the story of the night; it just didn't come to anything, and the first half slowed down to quite a pedestrian pace at the close of the half.

The second half started at most of a fast tempo, with former-captain Gerrard making a great run and just as good a cross, but that came to no avail. Re-instated captain Rio Ferdinand then made a run of his own but lost the ball, however Cole – the now most-capped left back – won the ball back and ended up winning a freekick in a good position... which we wasted. Again.

As yellow cards started to flow more freely than the game, England fans started to get more and more frustrated. Kevin Davies was introduced, who made an imidiate impact, nearly setting up a goal for Rooney, however the Montenegro keeper stood his ground and made two comfortable saves. Shaun Wright-Phillips was also introduced, but the little man just couldn't do it for England on the night.

It could have turned nasty for England, as with ten minutes to go Montenegro rattled Joe Hart's cross bar, and Hart could do nothing but watch it sail over his head and hit the woodwork – much to his, and the rest of the England team's, relief.

England threw, not the kitchen sink, but maybe a few utensils at the determined Montengro defence, but the away team kept their shut out and for the first time at the new Wembley, England failed to score.

As for the title of this match blog, it speaks for itself: we were totally below par tonight. But, we're second in the group with a game in hand of the leaders – and as for the qualifying games, there's still a long way to go yet!

See you in March.

Full Time: England 0-0 Montenegro

Draws that feel like a loss

Yesterday was just that. When you go two nil up against ten men, even away from home, you must expect to win, and anything other than that is a failure. You still must search for the third goal, and you must still use your extra man to your advantage… Blues did neither of those things and ended up going back down to the Midlands confused as to where it all went wrong.

The move for the first goal was brilliant; McFadden’s clever pass to slip Bowyer in who ran through the defence to dink the ball across the surface into the path of Cameron Jerome; whose small, but vital, touch found the out-stretched leg of Roger Johnson for his first ever goal in a Blues shirt - something which we’ve all been waiting for, him especially, for such a long time!

Going in front first is not something we do all too often; especially when it’s after four minutes. You’d think we would slip up after that, as of corse, this is Birmingham City. But credit to the team; they were great in the first half: keeping Bolton at bay and having a good amount of possession and chances.

And then something that still confuses me now happened: in the 36th minute, Roger Johnson jumped for the ball with Jussi Jaaskelainen. They both got up off the floor, and Jaaskelainen turned to face Johnson and slapped him. Slapped him. One of the most experienced Premiership goalkeepers lost his head and bitch-slapped a player. It was all quite surreal, and Johnson turned away holding the side of his face as Jussi was shown a red card, leaving Bolton a goal down and a man down as they went in at half time - to a chorus of boos aimed at referee Kevin Friend, who had sent off one of their players for near assaulting an opposition player… (no, I didn’t get why they were booing either.)

Five minutes into the second half of the game and Birmingham were two up; McFadden put in a neat cross which found Jerome who, seeing his team mate Gardner in a better position than him, very unselfishly passed the ball into his path, who took two attempts to get the ball into the net before he ran off pumping his chest in front of the Blues supporters.

Bolton were down but certainly not out, and they produced a couple of saves from England-number-one-hopeful Ben Foster, before they eventually got the ball in the back of the net. A rather questionable penalty was awarded to Bolton after Johnson seemed to foul Davies. Davies himself stepped up to take the penalty and expertly slotted the spot kick away, and for you statisticians out there: this was the third penalty in a row awarded against Blues in their first three Premier League games this season.

With less than ten minutes left on the clock, Bolton were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area, after two Bolton players fouled each other (I’ll leave it to logic to figure that one out) and ex-Blues player Robbie Blake took his opportunity to equalise; and that he did.

With a few frantic efforts from Blues in the dying minutes, they couldn’t find that all important winner, and the full time whistle was blown, leaving Blues wondering why they let a two-goal lead slip, and the rest of us wondering the same.

Full Time: Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Birmingham City