March On, March On

[El Gordo]

0 - 0 and a yellow for Rooney; close enough.

The clocks 'spring' forward tonight so we lose an hour.
I wish it were possible for us to select the hour that we lose.
I can think of 90 minutes, never mind 60, that I could happily have erased from my recent history

It's a terrible confession, but from about about 70 minutes onwards, I actually wanted England to lose -- or certainly not win. If we'd scored, the appalling performance would have been glossed over by McLaren. You know the sort of thing: "We played a patient game against a resilient side, and I was always confident we would break them down. You can't always afford the luxury of playing exciting football when you have a job to do... [blah blah blah]"

We don't deserve to succeed because the FA and team management just refuse to learn from their mistakes, and refuse to make effective changes. They are either exceptionally timid, stubborn or stupid, or a mixture of all three. We all know, and it's been said ad nauseam that Gerrard and Lampard just don't seem to work in the same team. But Lampard is apparently undroppable.

The only thing I can think of to bring about true change is spectacular failure e.g. not qualifying for the Euros. It's a painful conclusion but it's not as negative as it sounds. I want England to succeed, but we can only do that if we change, and I can't see that happening unless the gods are totally humiliated. A sort of cruel-to-be-kind strategy.

At least the cricketers are through. The match against Ireland on Friday should be fun.