Peter Steward

My two passions in life are music and football. At times the latter seems to rule my life and take up most of my time. I am chairman of Hethersett Athletic Football Club which runs 15 teams covering all age groups. I am also a Norwich City season ticket holder and on the Norwich City Supporters Consultative Group. In this area of my site I intend taking a fairly regular look at our national game and what it means to me, starting with England's failure to qualify for the European Championships in Austria in 2008.

2007

Wednesday 21st November

So it's goodnight Vienna as England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 thanks to a lack-lustre performance at Wembley against Croatia.

I made the trip with a Norfolk FA party - my second of the year, having previously seen them comfortably beat Russia 3-0. This time, however, there was to be no repeat of that kind of success. So where did it all go wrong?

Firstly we were fielding virtually a reserve side with no Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Gary Neville, Phil Neville. Secondly we were up against a very skilful Croatia team and thirdly the manager's tactics were horribly wrong.

Steve McLaren insisted on playing just one up front and jamming the midfield. It backfired horribly as Croatia scored twice early on. In the cold light of day the manager got most things wrong and there are a number of questions that need to be answered including

	Why did he play a striker (Michael Owen), who was desperately needed against Croatia, in a meaningless friendly in Austria four days before the vital match and watch as he sustained yet another injury?
	Why when players continually moan about having to play too much football did England agree to the meaningless Austria match. One of the reasons given was to give us an idea of what it will be like in the finals in Austria. Unfortunately we will never know because we won't be there.
	Why did he play a goalkeeper with no big match international experience (Scott Carson) having kept faith with Paul Robinson throughout the campaign? Carson made a total hash of Croatia's first goal.
	Why did he play one up front for virtually all the first half when it is a known fact that Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are not effective when playing together?
	When we got the scoreline back to 2-2 why didn't he bring Owen Hargreaves on as a holding defensive midfielder to strengthen the midfield and help the defence.
	Why did he field a full back (Wayne Bridge) so off the pace of the game that it was an embarrassment.

The above are just a few of the questions I was left pondering on the long journey home. They are the questions that will be asked over the coming days and weeks. Sadly there is still something wrong with our national game. A succession of managers have tried and failed to improve things. Excellent club players put on an England shirt and give a good impression at times of never having kicked a football. It happens time after time after time. New dawns become false days and I am fast becoming convinced that the answer lies in once again limiting the foreign imports into our game.

I enjoy watching the best players in the world playing in England as much as the next man, but our own talent is stifled, being forced to spend their lives in the reserves with an occasional outing in the Premiership or being forced to go out on loan to Championship or lower teams. The young players are not coming through or having the experience to set themselves up to play at international level.

Sadly Croatia gave us a lesson in football. They were light years ahead of an England team that still thinks the answer is to bring on a pedestrian David Beckham and expect him to work miracles. I know Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen were out and Peter Crouch played admirably, but if the best back up strikers we have are Darren Bent and Jermaine Defoe then we really are struggling.

I know that it is easy to be wise after the event but the England side sent out to play Croatia was badly equipped for the job in front of it. Croatia will do well in the finals, of that there is no doubt, but the stark facts for England are that in the end they needed just one point from their last two games and failed to achieve even that.

For what it's worth here are my comments on the England performances with marks out of 10.

Scott Carson 4 - Had a nightmare first half where he gifted Croatia the opening goal, having made the schoolboy error of not getting his body behind a lame shot. Looked nervous and hesitant throughout the first 45. Made a couple of good saves after the break but by then much of the damage had been done.

Micah Richards 5 - Looked a shadow of the imposing defender he has proved to be on a number of occasions. Still a young player with a big future.

Wayne Bridge 4 - Why Bridge was in the team was a mystery. He was caught out for pace and continually found balls being played inside him. This was a very poor display

Sol Campbell 5 - Well past his sell-by date and only in because of injuries to Terry and Ferdinand - and it showed.

Joleon Lescott 5 - Inexperienced and it showed as Croatia cut through the middle almost at will.

Joe Cole 5 - A shadow of the impish player that he can be. Ran out of ideas and was substituted at half-time

Shaun Wright-Phillips 5 - Proved to be a one trick pony despite having some reasonable runs. Again was sacrificed at half-time in an attempt to provide more punch up front.

Frank Lampard 6 - Named man of the match which was a decision that was difficult to understand. Largely ineffectual although he took his penalty well.

Steven Gerrard 5 - Where was the Liverpool player that we love. Had a poor game by his standards and failed to stamp his authority on the game.

Gareth Barry 5 - A decent England player but once again failed to produce his best when it was needed and was substituted.

Peter Crouch 7- The best England player by a mile. As always put everything into his game, but was all too often left to plough a lonely furrow up front. Took his goal superbly well and couldn't be faulted for effort and endeavour.

Subs

Jermaine Defoe 4 - Totally irrelevant. Looked small and powder puff when he came on.

Darren Bent 6 - Added some solidity up front and went close with one shot and did look to be more of a handful than Defoe.

David Beckham 5 - Sent in a few teasing balls, but contributed little else.

Incidentally when we got to Wembley we had the usual talk about looking after our belongings and how things are different at Wembley to our usual place of football worship Carrow Road. We were told that we would have our tickets checked numerous times and the staff wouldn't be as friendly. Whilst agreeing that the staff at Carrow Road are excellent, I would also pay tribute to those at Wembley. Over two visits this year I have largely found them to be polite and helpful. So bang goes another myth.

* * *

I was greatly saddened this week to hear of the death of former Norwich and West Ham player Graham Paddon at the age of 57. Graham was an excellent player and certainly better than anything Norwich have in midfield at the present time. He had a wicked left foot and I will remember him vividly as a skilful and whole-hearted player with film star looks and long flowing blond hair. I for one will be remembering "the good old days" when we have a minute's appreciation on Saturday before the game against Coventry. Isn't it good to have a minute's celebration instead of the minute's silence. It's right that we celebrate Graham's contribution to the club in a noise and celebratory way rather than in dark, dank silence.

Thursday 22nd November

It comes as no surprise that after last night's England debacle Steve McLaren has been sacked.

At a press conference he answered questions with great dignity and in an honest manner - something I think that has run through his period as head coach. Sadly the man just wasn't up to the job. But then neither ultimately were the last handful of managers.

So here we are again awaiting a new coach, a new Messiah who can achieve what so many before haven't been able to do. They can't all be bad coaches, they can't all fail when they get the England job after succeeding as club coaches and managers. As they say something is rotten in the state of England. It will take more than a new coach to sort that out. McLaren was never the right appointment and all it has done is put the country back four years and slung us into the footballing wilderness.

They talk about another mythical root and branch look at the entire English game. All very well but isn't it time we got people involved in football at a national level who have a love of the sport as a sport rather than as a business?

Ironically those that treat it as a business aren't very good at it. Getting rid of McLaren has cost £2.5 million. No wonder the man told the press conference that resigning had never entered his head. No the reality is he just waited for the inevitable phone call and will now await the inevitable cheque that follows it.

He was quick to say that he wants to get back into football as soon as possible and isn't the kind of person to sit around on a beach and looks forward to his next challenge. There are many of us thinking it would be nice to be a failure if it means having vast amounts of money thrown at us and spending some time sitting on a sunny beach. What price failure? In the case of the England football team non qualification for Euro 2008 and £2.5 million!!!

* * *

I know anybody unfortunate enough to come across this column will question why I keep going on about Norwich City. Sadly we all support somebody and I happen to have been born here and have been supporting them for over 45 years. So that's my excuse.

For the first time for a long time I'm looking forward to going to see the team perform this Saturday. New manager Glenn Roeder has brought in a number of loan signings and that means we won't necessarily be the pushover we have been throughout the season so far. No longer will we be an automatic three points for the opposition.

Yes loan players are an intended quick fix, but anything that can get Norwich away from the foot of the Championship has to be applauded. God knows what will happen when all the loan signings return, however, and we are faced with having to actually sign players or worse still go back to playing the shambolic ragbag we already have at the club, most of whom were put together by the clueless Peter Grant who features high in the list of worst ever Norwich managers.