Thetownend.com

Just wondering how many of you will be missing the game through the constraints of employment....

Working, but projector setup in office. Guaranteed 30mb connection.

Rest of school have 70mb.

Got to pick my little girl up at 3.45pm. Half an hour away from work.

Rubbish.

Kick off's at 8PM here, I'l have my feet up on my desk watching a stream.

Thanks for reminding me to check the kick-off time, fantastic excuse to start drinking earlier than usual.

Yep il be at work - teaching PE to a boy heavy year 6 class that will no doubt mostly be grumbling they can't watch the football

Home. The notion of watching it with work colleagues fills me with dread, it would make me want to channel my inner-Larry David.

(http://www.unsportsmanlike-conduct.com/uploads/3/9/1/5/39153357/5302383_orig.gif)

But, you know, c'mon England.

Watching

Booked a half day, will be watching it somewhere but not quite sure where yet

Pah!

I was in secondary school during France '98 and we had an double-English lesson scheduled during England vs. Tunisia. Luckily our teacher applied common sense and ushered us in to the assembly hall where approx 50% of the school watched it on the big screen.

Apparently, it was purely down to whether the teachers wanted to watch it or not as there was plenty of space. The other 50% were not so lucky.

Watching, although I will be in Wales.  :suicide:

Bradon gave us the morning off for the England v Brazil game in 2002 as they figured everyone would be ill otherwise so they'd be better off getting people in at lunchtime...

I watched that one in Chippenham college.

They should consider themselves lucky that their furniture was bolted to the floor - FURIOUS.

 :)

I feel your pain. I'll be watching with Welsh colleagues in the centre of Cardiff.

Self-employed contractor. Losing £400 I won't get back to ensure I see the game in the pub.

I sure hope the England team will match my commitment to the cause..

School have decided that rather than try and put all kids in the hall, they have to remain in department with a teacher who is happy to watch it. Which leaves me with a handful of Y10s to watch the game with. Be better all in one place but could be worse.

I'm on gardening leave which means I'll be enjoying the match either at home or at the local.

It's also my birthday so an England win would be lovely.

What's your internet speed like?!

I've scheduled a meeting out of the office, somewhere where there's hopefully a telly.

Work from home, so moving into the room with the telly but will forget to take the laptop. :)

I've taken half a day off and am off to the pub (Brunel, Chip) with the passionate Welsh workmate and a few others. If it goes wrong I'm sneaking out because 'he' won't shut up for months.

You young bastard! I was on my honeymoon for that game. Watch it in Palm Cove, Queensland, in a bar that had both happy hour and free meatballs. The Mrs went off shopping. It was perfect until the football.
---
My eldest says LPA are letting them watch it.

Watching at home, had an op Monday so "recovering" with a few tinnies.

I will also be in Wales, not sure if I'll watch it.

THIS!

Im off thank god! Someone else can deal with the fallout of a potential England defeat! Will be down the pub instead

I booked the day off months ago to prepare for my wedding. Only realised recently how well that worked out. Not likely to be a productive afternoon.

I get 5 at home, why are you unhappy you only get 30 at work!

Happy Birthday BO and hope you're recovering ok sutton!

I have to share it...

Watching in a bar in Puerto de Pollensa.

Likewise although I will be watching on the laptop and ignoring emails as they come in. No doubt TV in living room will be tied up with Peppa Pig or whatnot?

Afternoon off, in the pub

In the pub, happy days.

We're all either streaming it in the office, or all going down the pub, Director's orders.

I've had the afternoon booked off since february

We've had all the games on in the office and we've been given "extended lunch hours" with free pizza and beer.

I love this place  :pint:

In The Dolphin

In the boozer

Working, but my head of department has instructed that we are to put it on the TV's around the place.

Love it.

Booked the day off when the fixtures came out so no work for me :)

I booked the week in January.

I always book the first week off the WC and Euros - THREE GAMES A DAY!!!!!!!!!

...and then I tune in and it's largely dull.

Exactly this. Working from home. Can't stand watching football with the general public, and with colleagues..... Nah. On my lonesome, peace and quiet, with a cup of tea and sausage sarnie. Job done.

Yes! This issue all started when I went to the student union for Andorra vs. England in 2007. It was a terrible performance and England couldn't break through until shortly before the hour mark. I remember looking at the packed Union celebrating Gerrard's goal like we'd just scored an 90th minute winner against Germany in a World Cup game.

It was Andorra. I've rarely watched a game in a public place since, if at all.

Mixing medicine and Alcohol Sutton?

Thanks Ells :)

Is this why you don't go to Town games? ;)

Everyone from my office are going to the pub.

Love being in a creative industry! COME ON ENGLAND.

I asked the headteacher to partially block iplayer to reduce bandwidth usage. He disagreed...

Could be interesting, 40 odd classrooms possibly trying to stream the same thing.

Zing! I tend to be able block idiots out better when at an actual match.

The reason I don't get to many games any more is a combo of living away, spending every spare penny on a wedding/honeymoon/deposit for a house and having the least forgivable/understanding of football future spouse one could imagine.

Work boardroom with snacks/nibbles and soft drinks provided, its better then nothing I guess

I feel your pain having got married last year, its bloody expensive!! Although my wife is relatively forgivable/understanding about football luckily.

Good luck mate.

Surely it isn't luck. Why would you want to spend your life with a bird who tried to curtail your football? 

Wives should be educated, preferably to become full on STFC fans, but if not then at least be tolerant.

Start work at 3.45 so will see most of it. I fancy the draw if we're going to talk about the game itself.
Russia are clearly the worst side in the group so this will not be an easy game at all.

If they don't drink pints or love football, then forget it.
Probably explains the current status of happily single though.

Quite...although we live in strange times, you'd think finding a bird who drinks pints and likes her football would be easy, but seemingly not.

I really, really hope we don't do something stupid like lose. I'm sort of dreading that.

Don't work in the summer, so fishing and golf for me today.

Footie is boring, I fear  :(

Been bitten a few times which doesn't help and not wanting kids probably narrows the field a fair bit.
Anyway content enough with current lifestyle to not lose any sleep over anything.

I shall be working >:(

What makes it worse is that part of my work prior to kick off today will be to set up the hall so that the senior kids can watch the match via the interwebs.

I suspect they will be supervision heavy.........

Yeah because a women with a beer belly is a number one turn on for a man I would have thought?

Apparently the question " am I going to be single for ever?" is one of the most popular on Google.

have you added to the count?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/15/am-i-going-to-be-single-for-ever-google

Worked for me.

Count yourself lucky, I was at that bloody game!

Coldest I've ever been at a game incidentally, 11 of us ventured from our 2300m high resort in t-shirts and hoodies thinking that we're going to Barcelona, we'll be fine, of course Espanyol's old ground, where it was held, is pretty much the highest point in Barca and it was freezing, sea level was nice and toasty.

I also managed to slip over in front of roughly 2000 England fans while kicking a ball about in the Plaza Major, you can imagine how that went...

Day off. At home. Just baked a cake for my kid's birthday.

TV sport at school memory: our ace junior school teacher brought the TV into the classroom so we could watch the 1981 Ashes - I think it could have been the classic Headingley 3rd Test.

No beer bellies here.

Not sure they'd be up for a Tuesday night at Boundary Park though.

Can't think of anything worse.

England unchanged

Brave call but if we can get Sterling into form then it would be huge for our chances.

At home, drinks out, shirt on, Baddiel and Skinner playing. Bring it on.

My eldest's school have said they'll let the kids watch the game at school, presumably rather than have the school half empty with a mystery virus. He's quite chuffed, but not that fussed. Conversely, my youngest is desperate to watch the game, but his school aren't letting them watch it, so he's going to dash to his mate's house to catch most of the second half. He's furious. As you can imagine, there was absolutely no teasing over breakfast this morning at all. It was like fucking Lille, I had to intervene to pull them apart every two seconds, wished I'd had some tear gas handy.

Move that fucking ball!

Always like a good TV swear

Wales not in red.thats wrong

Why the fuck are Wales not wearing red?

We have red socks on I guess. Daft

Ooops sterling that will please the antirahim!

Anyone got a good stream? Stuck teaching English to a disinterested 11 year old. "OK, you can play on your iPod while I do some office work"

Oh no...savage

funny how the media portray things. When they were shite nobody bothered to go and watch them, now all of a sudden Wales have some of the most passionate fans

Its live on the BBC website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/35200594 if you are abroad cannot help!

Delli ali really is a nasty little bastard isn't he?

Fuck off Savage, you dopey cunt.

Sterling having a shocker. Don't see why lallana gets so much shit, been our best player so far in both games

He's a chippy wanker isn't he....

Got it on the First Channel stream here! Even 11 y.o. is interested now )))

Fucking joe hart is fucking useless

England 0 Bale 1.

That was fucking miles out, fucks sakes

 :clap: :beers:

Joe Hart has done a Phil Smith there.

Should have been a routine save useless goalkeeping

Sturridge for Kane

Anybody for Sterling

Promote a steward for Sterling, by god he's awful.

It's all looking depressingly like the Russian game...

I fucking love Joe Hart. Off to buy him some head and shoulders.

I think he dipped his gloves in them pre-match.

I could have saved that  :-[

Is it? We were good in the Russia game, buildup play hasn't been anywhere near that level, only really having any success through Walker and Lallana on the right

Wales have been shit, hart should have saved that. It's irritating because england actually played well in the russia game, they weren't bad in the first half of this game as well. Gunna be very difficult to break wales down as they can just sit deep and counter

ffs. 50 (52) years of hurt is beginning to stop me dreaming.

being down the pub with two Welshmen, joy.

Standard England not helped by the fact we have a 70 year old football dinosaur managing the team. Played a formation that included Vardy in all the warm ups and ditched it in the tournament. He was past his sell by date at Liverpool and yet still got the England gig. So one dimensional and never makes positive changes, hardly an inspirational leader!

I thought you were younger Batch  ???

On the bright side, even if score stays the same, beat slovakia and england are through. Slovakia looked decent yesterday....

Neither of these teams are going to win the tournament, just enjoy it  ;)

Vardy and Sturridge on. Dice rolled.

Happy with those changes

Miles offside hahah ... But off a Welsh player. Game on!

Comes off williams! Onside!

Wonder if we've seen sterling's last england game?

He's 21 you daft sod. Maybe in this tournament, not a chance career

3 strikers fairly positive

Ha,you're assuming he's going to improve! ☺

Pop bang lovely. Changes made the difference.

One in the eye for the roy haters

Enjoy the rest of the day Batch  :D

I really enjoyed that game!

Wonderful conclusion but ultimately a deserved win for England.

never in doubt

I will, I will

Wales are dogshit. Without Bale they wouldn't have been close to the tournament. Should have won more comfortably but I'll take it

Thought Ramsey played better than Bale today. Not much else in their side though.

The Welsh supporters sang 'England's going home...' twice, and with a minute of them singing it England score.

I thought Walker was excellent today and my MoM.

1 nil and they fucked it up!

I too noticed that and found it quite ironic.

 :D :girlgiggle: :pint: :bye:

Don't forget that humble pie while you're at it

Another decent performance. As JJ said, Walker man of the match, ran the show on the right. Rooney again comfortable in midfield and hopefully Sterling is dropped for the next game.

Rashford was either sublime or ridiculous but certainly promising. Well done Sturridge, he looked hungry and capped off with a deserved goal.

Wales battled hard but take Bale and Ramsey out of that side and they are not great.

Quite nice to see the Wales mind games backfiring. No passion indeed.

Might teach Bale to keep his mouth shut...It normally backfires on you in the end.

:D

Exactly as I saw it, Rashford looked like a lost sheep for the first 5 mins then came to life then disappeared then back again.

He looks promising and at least his first competitive game is behind him so he can relax a bit more now.

I think a large part of Ramsey's role today was to try and wind Dele Alli up, looked like it might succeed 1st half. We looked OK but we still seem to grind to a halt when we get to the edge of their area although we may look better against a team that aren't putting 8+ players behind the ball as both Russia and Wales have?

Been very good both games. Lallana played well before he came off too.

I agree!

Very open now for the last matches  ::)

I think next game start sturridge/vardy/lallana as front 3. Lallana has been brilliant in opening 2 games up until about 60 mins, then bring on rashford/wilshere/kane.

Such a cruel cruel game is football.

Yes England were better, but at least we gave them a game. With England's quality they should be performing much much better.

C'mon Sippo, you're better than that...

Men against boys. Don't think Wales offered much at all and Bale, apart from a lucky free kick, was anonymous. It's always a no-win situation when we play minnows like Wales: lose and we're castigated for it, win and it's 'well they should win'. We dominated the whole game and it was a just result.

Proud of my boyo's though. Should get into the knockouts.

Spot on.

The 8-1-1 formation is always a tough one to crack.

Should do, Russia look pretty poor. Glad this game is done so I can get back to supporting all the home nations!

As I stated earlier it's very open, any 2 could go through.

Fuck that! The thought of crowing Welsh or Irish if they progress further than us is too horrible to contemplate.

Just got back.

I was going to stay in but decided against it as my internet connection is unreliable. The wife did some scouting for me and found a place that that said they'll be playing the match. By 'playing the match', I was expecting more than it being screened on a 21 inch TV behind the cashiers desk rather than a big screen (which they had). 5 minutes of me stood at said cashier's desk with beer in hand and shouting at the TV was enough to convince them to put the game on the big screen. *Pats self on back*

What is it with all the crap deliveries into the box? I could have defended a lot of those. I get that it's difficult to break down a team that's playing for a draw but it would help to aim the ball in the general direction of a player on your team.

Did Joe Hart coat his gloves in butter before the match?

What was with the Welsh tool in the crowd crying at 1-1?

Lastly, and by no means least: FUCK YEAH!

Yeah same, I'd love to see them all do well.

I thought walker looked very good, but would've been so much more effective occasionally whipping the ball in.
Hurray England etc

Bollocks to that. They will all piss themselves the minute we go out

I'd imagine UEFA are even now meeting to throw England out after last night's trouble in Lille, despite the French telling England fans to go there rather than Lens.

I doubt it. If there was trouble in the ground today then it could have been curtains.

That's the only reason i want Wales to progress so the Russians can fuck off home.

Hopefully he continues with positive changes when we are winning now. Too many times he goes with negative changes rather than trying to push on, Russia game being a prime example.Our defence is pretty poor so our best chance of winning is by attacking other teams, lessons learnt hopefully!

Meh, I don't really pay any attention to that..

2 men started on me after I celebrated the winning goal - one telling me to "get a grip or he'd smash my face in." Another one started at the final whistle, telling me to "fuck off back to england" and that I was a woman so didn't know anything about football anyway.

All in all an excellent afternoon if we pissed them off that much.

Keep up the good work agent Ells.

Great work!

A crucial point made, because your gender really made a difference to the scoreline.

Indeed. One of those situations where he might as well have just screamed "RAAAAAARGH" for the same effect.

To be fair if we'd lost I'd have been very pissed off too, but I don't think I'd take it out on random strangers.

Don't you mean rooooaaaarrrr?

Decent game I thought. Credit to woy who got his subs spot on. Shame it took going 1-0 down to do it though. The safe set up with players who have done alright previously isn't the here and now. Just go for it with players in form !
The referee was superb as well I thought.

I went birdwatching instead and got soaked.

Good result.

Dog shit game though, Seen way better in L1.

You went full Batch, never go full Batch.

I was at that game too, average sized world.

Tough guys  ::)

Really? Does that shit still really happen?

If yes, then we're still fucking at least 50 years behind where we should be.

I'm too retarded to understand

Tempting fate obviously, but the standard of refereeing in all the games I've seen so far has been outstanding I think.

I would say more odd than outstanding, whereby they have become somewhat more lenient (which is no bad thing) then after c.70 minutes they start booking people for what appear to be completely innocuous stuff?

Kiss of death...

Did you spot anything interesting?

Better than the standard of goalkeeping

God I'm too old for this shit.

Got back from the pub after staying on to watch norn play the Ukraine and the rest of the evening was a write off.

Unlike son who went out on the town after (I remember being able to do that :) )

Both games were crying out for Vardy, Woy finally realised that at half time yesterday. As harsh as it is to drop Kane, I wouldn't play him against Slovaks.. Sturridge also made a big impact and was instrumental for picking it up deeper & driving at the defence

Weird you say that and i know he scored but he didn't actually do much else did he. I think people expected Vardy out wide and Sturidge up top

Kane looks burnt out. The long season has caught up with him.

Vardy did look off the pace a bit other than scoring, Sturridge seemed to play in the hole rather than up front and looked fairly comfortable and wanted the ball all the time, but he was a bit greedy at times.

I would prefer Vardy instead of Sterling though any day.

I agree with Arriba that Kane looks totally burnt out, which is such a shame for England.

Think a lot of people forget Kane played at under 21s last year as well. Poor bloke is dead on his feet

Tournament football so no time for loyalty to players. Both Kane and sterling are not currently worthy of a game. Drop the pair of them.

Strikers are there to score goals. Everything else is irrelevant if they do score and the team wins.

Interesting you say that Sturridge just seems a little desperate/greedy (delete as appropriate) and just drives forward and either blazes it over the bar or gets tackled (a kind of Barkley/Sterling with more chance of end product), that said a goal may get his confidence up and make him play more of a team game with less to prove now, plus he has god on his side as he told Gabby Logan repeatedly - he would have been perfect for Hoddle on that front!

It was good the rest of the team jumped on him and stopped him doing his twatish celebration  :D

When fit and before anyone says it i know it is very rarely but when fit Daniel Sturridge is the best striker we have.

Agree

Depends what system we are playing and how fit he actually is, but hopefully now he has a goal he will calm down a bit and integrate his game with the team as he should be playing.

I agree that Kane looks proper shattered, I image Spurs will be fairly pleased if he is kept out the team for a while....

https://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2016/jun/17/david-squires-on-england-beating-wales-at-euro-2016

Why the fuck was you even watching football? It wasn't a ladies match, nor was it Soccer Aid with lots of celebrity males for you to fantasize over.

Hang your head in shame.

I fancy Aaron Ramsey :)

Even with that barnet?

Oh god no, give me some credit :D same with Giroud's beard, state of that once gorgeous man is now utterly depressing.:(

It actually the news here. Full back page.

Haha, speaking like a proper bird there Ells..

Not yesterday but saw Chough and Fulmar today which was excellent.

SY still didn't spot me though!

I'm guessing you must be somewhere like Pembrokeshire.....tis the only places I've seen chough.  If you approach a fulmar's nest, they puke a sort of fish soup over you....the Norwegians probably rot it down and eat it.

Yes, near Tenby. Failed attempt to reach Skomer today but lots of skylarks on Caldey Island instead

Tenby is ace.

I was a member of the 'Chough Club' at a holiday resort in Cornwall when I was a kid.

Tremendous football chat, this.

Interestingly the noise that Choughs make are actually a sharp 'chow' sound so we're probably all pronouncing it wrong

Could be an example of an onomatopoeia, but in which the original Celtic word has mutated. Not unusal in Brythonic language.

FFS, don't mention chat. They'll be off discussing another bird.

Chuffing hell!

As it happens I saw Stonechat as well

There's a bird that sits squawking out my window at about 5/6am when I sleep, can you give me any tips on how to kill it?

Buy some earplugs, close your window and fucking ignore it.

Wish he'd "rested" joe fucking hart

"As it stands"....the most pointless statistic in football

Especially after 11 minutes!

Will someone take the free kick/corner duty from Henderson.

Hits the front man from both corners and free kicks.

Well that's as dominant a half without scoring as I've seen since... Well the Russia game

bring on kane!!

2 nil up at half time. Absolutely battered the Russians.

Fuck me why cant professional football players take corners/free kicks! Wilshere very rusty and lost the ball a few times, first one I'd change

Lallana has looked good and worked hard, as have Vardy and Clyne, Sturridge looks bloody awful and lazy so far, should be 1 or 2 up though, which seems to be a common theme for England in this tournament so far, let's hope our domination of games but lack of cutting edge doesn't bite us on the arse

Sturridge needs to be hauled of immediately, he's been utter shite (unsurprisingly)

Ryan 'elbows' Bertrand is having an interesting game

Henderson is the new Sterling. Fucking useless.

He's linked well with Lallana and Clyne through the middle, it's just when he tries to deliver it himself that he's not very good.

If by interesting you mean shite, then yes. Yes he has.

It's his crossing which is possibly me off mainly. But you make a fair point. I'm being harsh.

I'm trying to remember the last tournament game we won comfortably having gone ahead in the first half and stayed ahead the whole game... Obviously it wasn't in this tournament or the last World Cup clusterfuck. Euro 2012 we beat Ukraine but with a second half goal and Sweden but they were ahead for a while... When was our actual last comfortable competitive win?

3 nil. Thanking you.

I don't think England have played too bad.
There is however somthing about Joe Hart that make me want to chin him

For our great attacking options we really struggle to put the ball in the net!

To answer my own question, I had to go back to 17th June 2004 and England 3-0 Switzerland. We had a 2-0 against Trinidad and Tobago (!) in 2006 but that was first goal in the 83rd minute. We just don't win easily.

Yeah bob.he aint no milner

Andy Carroll time

Be nice to play a team who don't just defend for 90 minutes, sloavakia have about 7 defenders on

This is true, pretty much everyone has struggled against well organised defended in this tournament

ITV drives me insane

6 changes tonight has been the main issue, we dominate possession but struggle to create clear cut chances. Hodgson seems very indecisive at picking a formation and system and seems to air on the side of caution as a result, in the attacking third there doesn't seem any real plan. Barring a last minute catastrophe we are through but it's very stuttery.

ITV's sports coverage has always been shite


True, but the best teams find a way to score.
We have had only 5 attempts on target, not enough with how dominant we have been

I think I may of, at one point, said something like "I can't see us having any trouble scoring, it's just our defence that's the concern."

So it's probably my fault.

That wasn't ideal.

There was just no creativity, no quality final ball, no movement. Vardy squandered our only clear opportunity. It's not inspiring.

An ability of someone in the team to cross the ball might be a good start.

So which of you cunts are going to be honest, and admit Wales deserved to the win the group?

Thought not.

Personally think we will look more threatening against teams that attack us so we can counter against them, germany game for example. Teams that are very happy with a point (russia, wales, slovakia) we dont seem to have that cutting edge. Would have brought barkley on for Henderson as we didnt need him ithe 2nd half and barkley has that creativity

We played well again. I'm happy, this is how to progress in a tournament. When teams attack us, we'll have more space up top. Relax and enjoy. It's fine.

We'll clearly they did, they scored the most goals and got the most points. Why would anyone have an issue with that?  :hmmm:

If we get through the first knockout game it's almost certain to be France in the QF after that

We got a point and go through, if matey had capitalised on the easiest chance of the match when Smalling and Hart had a tiswas, that might not have been certain.

Regardless of the England performance, I think it makes a mockery of the competition the fact that a team is happy to play for a 0-0 for third place in a group of four teams.

Seemed to me that our much publicised strikers didn't really want to mix it with those two centre halves - who both had great games.  Oh for an Andy Carroll for the last 30 mins.

It's not the end of the world, especially if Ronaldo kills off Hungary.

Problem is chances are we are now going to play Portugal and fucking Ronaldo and that went so well last time, he's bound to have a blinder against us. Poor from Hodgson really, he's had 2 years since the World Cup and still hasn't figured out the best system to play and chops and changes way too much.

Skrtel played a blinder.

Disappointing scoreline, but in games like this I'm never sure whether to lambaste our attacking prowess (or lack thereof), or just accept that the opposition did a fucking good job in stopping what was a team with attacking prowess.

At least teams can't play for a draw in the knock out stage.

Ummmm do you not remember us against Italy in the last Euro's? That's precisely what we did....

Of course they can....and then hope to nick it on pens

Genuinely pleased for Wales by the way, despite a few Wales fans seeming to be much happier with the Slovakia performance than their own.

Because Wales hardly get any credit. Not bad for a bunch of sheep shaggers.

If we're gunna run out of ideas and just cross it in the box for the last 15 mins then why didn't we take someone like Carroll/Townsend who can actually head/cross  :'( Plan B.

Changes didnt make much difference in my opinion,clyne was our best player,99% of people would surely have gone for vardy and sturridge....only contentious one was perhaps rooney.to say we didnt create anything is frankly baffling.

Reminded me of us. All balls, but no cock to stick in. Dire really.

Was going to comment the same thing. Commentators saying England dominated when really they just messed about with possession and really didn't create much and made it a very very boring game to watch.

Didnt create anything?vardy,sturridge,ali all with clear cut opportunities and several desperate blocks in the first half alone.thats what i saw anyway

We played OK...certainly seen worse in recent campaigns.  Most of our shots though were hit too well.....Hal Robson Kanu showed the way....scuff a mis-hit into the corner.

I saw the same thing.

I've seen some comments on social media that we were dire. Disappointing, maybe. Dire, WTF?

We've managed to stutter through what is a mediocre group thanks only a last minute winner against Wales that's fairly poor.
In front of goal we just aren't ruthless and all the backwards/sideways football is pretty frustrating at times.

We've been dominant in every game we have played in, just lacking a killer touch. Agree we have been a bit pedestrian, but all three teams tried to shut up shop against us - its hard to break them down.

I don't think I've ever seen a team so negative as Slovakia, a draw didn't benefit them at all so why put everyone behind the ball for 90 minutes? Seemed odd.

England didn't play poorly but Wilshere was a waste of space and Bertrand offered fuck all except an excellent elbow smash. Vardy did nothing for most of the second half, barely noticed him.

Dier looks a great player and Lallana was good too. I like Rooney in midfield but not the type of player to bring on as a sub in that sort of game.

Nevertheless, a penalty defeat awaits against Portugal.

Well done to Wales, the sight of Neil Taylor's bewilderment in front of goal was amazing.

There appeared little movement or creativity. The pace appeared pedestrian too.

Slovakia were relying on the point getting them through in 3rd place.

Quite frankly we are just not good enough. I quite liked Bilic's summary of the game, just not quite good enough or clever enough.  We may have dominated, but we were allowed to and despite having a few shots, most were long range or under pressure in bad positions - only 5 on target out of 29.  Their keeper was hardly putting in a man of the match performance.

Dier has impressed me.  Other than him, I still see little to make the top dogs get worried by us when the crunch comes.  It's all a bit too slow, with little movement or intelligence and without any world class players who can take personal responsibility to drag the team with them.  Basically we are ok ish.

Why oh why do we not play in swinging corners? The players in the box have a standing start and do not attack the ball which means they cannot generate power from headers. Every corner was an out swinging one. That was when they beat the first man of course  >:(
Waste of time. Henderson's delivery was abysmal in open play and dead ball.

The forwards are the biggest worry as the system doesn't suit them(vardy in particular) or they are off the boil (Kane).
Sturridge was playing way too deep imo too.
That was crying out for Andy Carroll tonight.

How good were Wales by the way? Ramsey and Bale ran riot. The much ridiculed Joe Allen is having a great tournament too. Good luck to them.

The last 10 seconds summed it up for me. 99.99% of players/teams on the half way line would launch into the opponents box. We passed it back, and the ref thought fuck that I'll blow. We're as we always have been, too negative, and even when we aren't negative, not skilful enough.

The positive is that it's very unlikely we'll end up playing Portugal. For that to happen (I think)

- Portugal and Iceland both have to draw their final group games
- Portugal have to score two more goals than Iceland in their draw
- if Portugal score one more than Iceland and both teams draw it goes down to fair play (not sure who's ahead there) and then coefficient (which I would assume Portugal are ahead in
- if they both draw by the same score line then Iceland finish second.

Edit edit - I think that's all valid too if you replace the word draw with win. But I can't see Iceland winning

I can imagine any Town supporters there yesterday evening just thought it looked very similar to Swindon the last season, possession is pointless unless you either do something with the ball or are playing for a draw.

Telling to me that possibly our two best players have been our right backs.

If that was Swindon then I'd say they played ok.
Because it's England, no. Very frustrating.
The team and staff should be disappointed with that performance.
Having said that, they should be able to move up a couple of gears when it's needed.
Six changes was too many.

In 2 years since the last tournament, Roy is still experimenting. He should have a preferred formation and lineup, but he doesn't. That's a huge failing.

I thought we played quite well against a side that had no attacking options at all with 8 or 9 behind the ball at all times....much like Wales did against us.

But thats international football when one side is an underdog vs one of the best teams in the world, yes I do think we are still up there with the best except for two areas....goalkeeper and attack (yes I realise thats two major parts).

We have so many options up front yet we don't play to their strengths at all, Vardy likes to run into the channels with balls over the top...but he probably had two of those all game. Sturridge is playing far too deep and looks uninterested 90% of the time and greedy the rest of the time, he should play further up and not come back and looking lost.
Kane still looks tired and way off the pace.

Henderson ran around a lot and interchanged with Clyne well at times but his passing and general play was poor, Lallana had a very good game with great passing and got in some good positions but his finishing will always be his weak point.

Bertrand is not an England standard player. Smalling and Cahill did ok but we have seen better but then they had little to do most of the game. Clyne played very well first half but faded a little 2nd half but was still out best attacking outlet and didn't look out of place.

Alli is a bit too greedy from silly angles but at least he has a go at goal. Rooney took a while to get into the game but did ok, not as good as his last two matches though. Hart still does not fill me with confidence...ever.

My MoM would go to Dier who was superb all game, always looking for the ball, winning tackles and headers and good going forward to.

We need to not walk the ball into the net all the time, try some shots from distance against some dodgy goalkeepers, play better dead balls and corners.

If we do get Portugal next game....lets make the whinger Ronaldo really have something to whinge about and knock them out.

No team has played with the confidence and ability all round so far that England have in all areas except in front of goal and in goal, we are so close to having a good team, if that Vardy effort had gone in or the Lallana shot gone an inch either way then the whole feeling around us would be a lot better.

We are still in, we are unbeaten, we look one of the best couple of sides left in it, we can get better and with some luck in front of goal we will get better, theres no team out there that worries me on current form.....yet, but its still early with no team hitting form so far.

Good post PV.

The best news so far is that the England knockout game is now on Monday evening rather than Saturday, so no missing a game for Glastonbury

Minute-by-minute breaking down of where it "went wrong" is so pointless. Its tournament football. We played very well against an extremely negative side and failed to break them down because the one thing we lack is composure when finishing, but as is the trend in this tournament - there's no outstanding strikers (hence Germany playing a 5"7' midfielder up front, Spain's second choice being a 35 year old journeyman and Italy relying on Eder and Pelle).

If Spain or Germany or France had put together the three group games we have (and France basically have) then we wouldn't be questioning them, but saying they look as strong as ever, haven't got the breaks, lack a bit of cutting edge.

Plus - I'd rather play a Hungary side that seem to at least try and attack, rather than depend on a poor defense and the worst gk in the tournament, than end up against the ultra-defensive Czechs for a repeat of last night.

Get to the QF (which we will) and then it doesn't matter who you play. The margins are so fine at that point and we have the ability to beat, and be beaten, by France, Italy and anyone else we may come across at that stage.

I was liking the reasoned positivity of your post until the last couple of paras. I think it's a bit of a stretch to say we're in the top two. Spain and Italy, at least, have looked more assured than us I'd say. I'd agree we look more or less on a par with France at present. Russia's subsequent results put our performance against them into perspective.

Still, with a bit of luck teams grow into tournaments. I remember the negativity about France in 98 right up until the QFs.

We didn't stutter at all

Until we won a major international tournament a couple of months beforehand  ;)

Yeah I wouldn't call dominating 3 games as stuttering, we never once looked in danger of losing any of them.

Hodgson shouldn't have rested Walker, Rooney, Rose & Alli IMO. If we'd kept with them I think we would have won. However, if they all come out flying in the knockout stages then perhaps his decision will have been justified. We'll see.

eh?

Le Tournoi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Tournoi_de_France

Those were the days!

Ah, how could I forget?

(I was here, and I still have no recollection of that happening.)

Spain are probably the only team that have managed to overcome this. Yes they left it late against the Czech Republic but they still managed to create that crucial opportunity to win the match.

Just catching up with the comments and I have to hold my hands up and say that Wales do deserve to win the group. Thrashed a woeful Russia side that we should have put away and also beat Slovakia, again a team we should have put away. We sneaked a win against you but by not getting what we should have done against Russia, we paid the price and Wales top the group. Well done by the way.

Think we're a better team than Wales but ultimately they finished their chances and we didn't. Would have been interesting had Russia and Slovakia lined up with the same 10-0-0 formation against Wales as they had done against us.

But this is where we have failed for generations - no craft or ingenuity in the final third to unlock both types of defence at International level, the teams who put everyone behind the ball or the teams with top class defenders.

Our players generally look a bit clueless in how to generate those moments.  We don't readily bring players through who can beat multiple players by themselves or slot an eye of a needle ball through a packed defence several times in a game.

We created chances - but you should do when the other team sits on their 18 yard line.  It happens too often to be an issue of "luck".  We get through qualifying groups most of the time because only the really rank useless teams try to block it out, the average teams will open up more in the initial groups.  Once in a tournament it's a fight for every point, and we've done nothing as a country to focus on improving the English talent.  Nobody in our team is truly world class, and nobody has the potential to get there (maybe Dier, at a stretch Alli).  Rooney maybe should have been but never quite hit it for me.  Even our Golden Generation were still shy of having it.  I'm not saying we are bad, just not good enough (and with the money in our game and pool of people who take up the sport, we should do better).

My take on last night.

Barring an almost catacylsmic error by Cahill/Hart the defence had nothing to do last night.

I thought Clyne was a dangerous outlet at RB (where all our chances seem to be created in each game) and Lallana again played well. Its such a shame he can't finish as all our clearer cut chances keep falling for him. Eventually he'll scuff one into the corner rather than smashing it cleanly down the keeper's throat!

Vardy should have scored his golden chance and I think we would have ended up winning that more comfortably. Until we take these chances teams are going to sit in against us as we're easy to play against.

Wilshere was a waste of time, I still have no idea why he was picked ahead of more worthy players who had played well in the PL last season, but that is another discussion. Rooney came on and was a big improvement. Henderson probably wasn't as bad as I thought last night, but his delivery into the mixer was generally bobbins. Dier my man of the match, i know he hates the tag, but he really is an excellent utility player.

I would have liked to have seen Rashford come on instead of Kane. With the tightly packed Slovak defence, the movement and trickery of Rashford more likely to create an opportunity than Harry Kane who seems to be running in treacle at the moment.

Overall, frustrating, but a totally dominant performance but without the most important aspect, and that is putting the bloody thing in the net. Vardy and Alli's chances aside, I can't remember a clear cut chance. That has to change in the knock outs, I think it will.

I could swear someone in the bar called him Wheelchair last night.

Is that a thing? If it isn't, can we make it one?

Yeah its a thing. I generally try and avoid football nicknames, as they are generally shit and unfunny.

Your analysis has a lot of validity, but the reality is that you can win tournaments without necessarily being that good, but rather getting things right like being able to take pens....that has been our single biggest flaw over the last recent years. There are now 12 England players who've missed a pen in either a WC or Euro shoot out....that's not luck.

Ah you may have a point Reg but how many have scored penaltys.

Oh fuck off. Wales were superb last night. They could have played for the draw, but went for it.

If a team plays defensively, then it's the oppositions job to break them down.

Wales were the best team of the group and the stats show that.

18 in the 6 games we've gone out in.....so an average of 3 a shoot out, not good enough. We did beat Spain in 96.

Which is the only knock out game we have won in the history of the European Championships.

Of course you were but the constant need the Wales fans are showing for the pat on the back is making me sick. They won the group so fair play to them but i will judge who has done better on who goes further it's as simple as that. The first aim is to get out the group and both teams done that it really doesn't matter if that's 1st or 2nd

"It's my ball and I'm going home!"

We are a better team than Wales. That's why you sat on your 18 yard line against us. You did better against Russia and Slovakia so deserve to finish top, but both teams played differently against us. You got far more space against both than we did and you made the most of it, we didn't. Sorry if that offends you but that's how it is buddy.

Same behaviour as some Oxford fans.

"LOOK! LOOK! WE'RE GOOD NOW!"

To get this far is an achievement. To win the group is beyond any welsh persons expectations. Let us have a moment at least.

How long before they change their name to Bales?

I wonder if a smaller country in terms of size and population has ever beaten a bigger, as Wales did to Russia, in a major tournament?

I had the same thought last night. Putin will be prepping the Migs, to reboost his ego.

Playing defensively often works, hence why so many teams do it at all. There'd be no point otherwise. It surprises me that people so often fail to take that into consideration, not just at internationals but year in, year out in the league as well. Even under Di Canio some would say were were shit after a dull game against a team that set out to defend. "We've been found out", I remember some saying after such a poor game. "That's our promotion hopes over"

Maybe some people should give some credit to the Slovaks. Some act as though they are some tinpot nation with tinpot players, but their better players do play in the top leagues around the world. It's not a case of "World-class" England vs "Part-time" Slovakia. Skrtel in particular played a blinder and their goalie had a good game as well.

Some bemoan our lack of creativity, but isn't that the entire bleedin' point of the opposition putting so many men behind the ball? If we were creating chances then the tactic of putting everybody behind the ball would be redundant. Would Wales have broken them down? Maybe, maybe not, we may never know but to compare performances when we were effectively playing against difference teams is somewhat misleading.

Czech Republic beat US in 2006.. that's the closest I can think of

I get your point but huge portions of this squad were nowhere near an England squad 2 years ago, many weren't even close at Christmas.


Look where Wales' goals came from against Russia, getting in behind.  There was no such thing as in behind in any of the games we played, if we were allowed that our pace would have destroyed our group.

I think Putin got his revenge in early, by destabilising Donetsk. An area of mining and ironworks set up by Welshaman John Hughes with a bit of help form some lads from Millwall  :)

Defending is just as a legitimate art as attacking. No problem with Slovakia's approach.

And of course teams play differently, more defensively, against England than Wales. We were group favourites, a draw against us and try and win one of the other two games is all you need to do to go through.

Well done Wales for winning the group. But I don't think ultimately it makes much difference*. We could get Portugal, they could get Croatia or Czech republic. not much in it.

* other than I'll be in the air when we play

The thing is with Wales and it's not a dig but they are not just a little shit team any more. Their team now has a wealth of premier league and Champions league experience and more than just one good player. This isn't a shit team with just Ryan Giggs in it anymore

Czechy has an land area roughly 4 times that of Wales, and about 7 mill more people....of course alot of the Welsh lads are English, but that's another story.

I guess someone fairly small must have beaten the old Soviet Union which was considerably bigger than Russia.

From some of their attendances, I assumed the people of Wales had forgotten they had a football team

Hal Robson Kanu.

I think we both know what i mean

 :)

They've all been watching rugby claiming football's a shit game until this tournament.

It must be great being actually in Wales when they won the Euros as they appear to have done last night.

I've genuinely seen people who told me football was shit/a girls game/rugby doesn't have thugs (you know, all the usual patter) wearing Wales shirts and waving flags etc during matches.

It's weird because some of them keep coming up to me and saying things like "HAHA WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT THEN?" as if they're desperate for me to rib them about being Welsh so they can give something back.  :no:

The ones telling me where England went wrong are my absolute fav though.

Oh let them have their moment!

We beat them, that'll do.

Northern Ireland through unless Turkey score 4 goals.

Fair play to em

Sour grapes.

I thought the Taffs played well and deservedly won the group. They play with flair and a style that suits their players.
I enjoyed their win over Russia more than our turgid 0 0.
 

What was that about the Spanish looking good?

Interesting thing is that now Italy have a very good incentive not to win their group. All bets are off.

The Owl has proper fucked up. Stuck with Spain, Italy, Germany & France in our side of the draw now.  Talk about making things unnecessarily hard for yourselves!

A typically well thought out and game changing welsh reply  ;)

We're always bitter or jealous  :hmmm:

It doesn't matter, and you can't second guess beyond last 16. QF onwards we're going to be playing top sides, and we're a top side. We can beat, and be beaten, by anyone at that point.

Win your group and generally you'll make things easier for yourself! Fate has gone to town to compound what was a idiotic decision and you could say he's got what he deserves!

Conversely Croatia rested 5 tonight yet beat Spain and go into the easier half of the tournament.

I'm not sure italy can do anything but win the group.

Exception to the norm. Key objective in any tournament is to qualify by winning your group, Hodgson tried to be clever and its backfired. Wales are probably quietly confident right now.

Italy would beat Spain

You make things easier for yourself for one round, and we're still playing a runner-up. It doesn't matter.

Still think Spain look more assured than us? ;)

Not sure. I didn't see the game. Were they shaky? Perhaps I should have replaced Spain with Croatia. They're looking pretty assured right now!

Aren't we in a peloton of decent teams who haven't completely convinced yet, along with France, Germany, Belgium...?

As we've seen so often already, one goal changes everything. Fine margins and all that.

One goal does indeed turn a shit performance into a good one (so many England fans think) I have not been overly impressed with any single team so far and do honestly think England are as good as any team there currently on form and ability.

Spains defence looks pretty weak currently I would say and Croatia are no world beaters but on that showing neither are Spain even though they dominated possession wise but shots wise it was close.

As a follower of Spanish football....yesterday looked a bit like Del Bosque should have done a Woy and used the squad a bit more.
Croatia made 5 changes, and got the sort of response Woy was hoping for. I'd no idea who a lot of these were other than Kalinic, who had an unconvincing spell at Blackburn, but they've now put themselves in the shop window, not only for selection this tournament but a nice lucrative move in the summer.

This is something we rarely consider....the bizarre premium on Engish players, so that a Sterling costs you 49 mill, but a Perisic costs you 15 mill.

The only other country where players have this situation is Russia...by some distance the worst of the 24 in this tournament.

Only Eric Dier of the England team has looked the sort of quality to attract a Barca or Bayern...and he of course learned his football in Portugal.

On recent performances I wouldn't even have Sterling in the Swindon team, he looks lazy uninterested and lacking quality.

That sounds a bit wierd saying that and actually meaning it, Swindon had a Ryan Mason play for us barely 8 months before he earned and England call up. The rise to international level can be as swift as the fall can be.

I was very impressed with Croatia last night. Spain had a lot of the ball but the Croats pressed the ball high up the pitch and caused Spain all sorts of problems. They sucked up a fair bit of pressure but then broke at pace and with numbers.

As you say, some of the fringe players look decent and certainly Pjaca up front looked very good.

A lot of teams give Spain too much respect and watch them pass the ball around for fun. Croatia got in their faces and got the win they deserved.

He can run quite fast and that's literally all he offers at the moment. Should have taken Townsend who at least ended the season quite well, did Sterling even play much for Man City last season? Same with Wilshere, he barely played for Arsenal last season, surely Drinkwater or Noble would have been more worthy on form? Or is the mantra, form is temporary, class is permanent the reason why Roy took these balloons.

Noble and Drinkwater are not good enough simple as that. Hodgson hoped Wilshere may be fit enough and gambled and if it pays off then it's worth it as despite him being a odious little cunt Wilshere has quality.

At no point in this tornament hae i thought fuck me i wish we had Noble or Drinkwater on the pitch

Sterling needs to grow up, he plays like a little boy who looks lost, and he commanded a £49m transfer fee? WTF is happening to football?

I can't argue that on form and fit Wilshere is one of the first names on the teamsheet. But he was terrible on Monday and I fear is just way off being as match fit as we need as we progress through the tournament.

If Noble and Drinkwater are not good enough, and presume that Wilshere was injured pre-tournament, who would you have picked out of interest?

I have to admit I would have taken Drinkwater over Wilshere based on fitness and form, Wilshere was awful Monday and as you state a fully fit Wilsere is a different propostion totally to the shadow of that player we saw a few days ago.

I think we could get away with not taking any of them so would like to have seen us take a more attacking option someone like Townsend.

Come on hungary-i was a teenage armchair honved fan

One for the teenagers... and Fred Titmus.

 I don't know if anyone else has noticed but Paul Trollope is a coach of the Welsh team....

Fred was more of Dukla Prague man....

Fuck me, I am struggling to work out who has been more of a tedious cunt in this thread out of Sippo and theakston2k.

 :headhurts:

Apart from when the British media and managers  constantly bleat about English players being grossly over priced :-[

By we I meant the TEF, I feel no sense of weness with the British media/managers/pundits etc.

Not even man of the people Robbie Savage? 😁

Go on then reg i'll recognise the half man half biscuit reference. Anyway what about the Irish, fuck yeah.

I went to watch Dukla Prague on my stag last year. They were rotten and lost 1-0.

A broken transformer again and again

What for criticising Hodgson for being a twat?!

Anyway as tedious cunts go you can't beat a poster that's 'in the know' ...  But actually knows fuck all. When's Jason Roberts signing then?!

Optimus past his prime.

I do know, for a fact, that Fred Titmus had heard the song. He wasn't overly impressed.

That's a shame...because it's a paeon to the man. A lasting memory being Fred brought back to face Lillee and Thomson in 74/75 aged about 44. In for his bowling, but scored 61. Thomson was in his prime as quick as anyone ever....this was at Perth always a quick pitch. It was the game where Bumble famously got felled by Thomson right in the nads

When fast bowlers were fast. Who was the last real great real fast bowler Donald? I cant think of anyone else.  They only really did the speed gun after all the real greats were dwindling or gone. Waquar as I type may be later.

I've said this before but I used to work with Robbie Savage's dad Colin - he was a seamer engineer based in Wantage.
He was from Worcester, as English as roast beef, and a very nice guy.
There was no hint of Welsh whatsoever.

So Robbie falls into the Vinnie category, of earthing up some distant welshness

He even speaks with a sort of Welsh accent now.

Colin Savage - complete gentleman
Robbie Savage..................fucks sake

Despite being a Convict, always had a bit of time for Brett Lee.

One of the great things about cricket is there seems to a natural limit on how quick you can be without chucking. I'm sure the likes of Larwood were as quick as Lee. Bowl full on quick and , mostly you've a short shelf life....Frank "Typhoon" Tyson being a classic example, yet he won us an Ashes in 54/55. This despite having been knocked unconscious by typically distasteful Convict ignoring of the "fast bowlers" union

I'm guessing being born there and spending the first 17 years of his life in Wales doesn't make him Welsh or explain his accent then?

I suppose Wikipedia could be lying, but it seems a bit of a stretch - after all, apart from Sippo, who the fuck wants to be Welsh? (He says with a wry smile, being half Welsh.)

Well all those slave traders are trying not to be Welsh, but in fairness they are close enough to count as 1/2 taff anyway

As I keep telling my Bristol Shitty supporting mates, which seems to infuriate them rather a lot :)

Bristol City fans clearly aren't Welsh. I mean Welsh people are odd, speak in a funny voice and have a strange sense of pride and entitlement that doesn't match their achievement  :hmmm:

I used to have a few friends from Bristol and calling them Welsh and/or Bumpkins used to make them get a bit defensive - especially when they knew you were from Swindon. :fishing:

"Ere bloke, e levs en ah gurt cosumupoleetun sety, no ways I be a bompken, arrr wun o thums sheep shaggurrrrrhs."

Because it's fashionable.

That is EXACTLY how my shitty supporting mates sound, but then thats Brizzle crossed with Zumerzet for you!