Crouch Scores In England Win

Last updated : 02 April 2009 By Jim Bonner
Peter Crouch, David James and Glen Johnson all started for England as they defeated Ukraine yesterday, a feat which will make all Pompey fans proud.

Only Chelsea could equal the number of Pompey representatives in the national side as Pompey's lanky striker scored the opening goal of the game. It looked like Andriy Shevchenko would spoil England's 100% record but John Terry scored a late equaliser to keep the run going.

David James only had to make a couple of saves, including one with his shoulder, but he could do nothing about the equaliser as the Ukraine free kick was poorly defended and the ball unfortunately bounced off Glen Johnson kindly for Shevchenko to score.

Other than that I'd say Glen Johnson was one of England's best performers and should have made the right back position his own now following impressive showings for club and country.

As for the overall team performance against Ukraine I thought it was OK but we would have got beaten by a better side. Rooney was once again our best player as the midfield seemed to go missing for much of the game (partially because too many long balls were being played).

Not that it matters at this stage as it's a results business and so far you can't argue against Fabio Cappello's record as England manager with five wins out of five in qualifying.

There is still work to be done though as Niko Kranjcar's Croatia are still in the mix following an easy 2-0 win over Andorra. The same can't be said about Hermann Hreidarsson after Iceland were beaten 2-1 by Scotland and already look like they won't be in South Africa in 2010.

The most important thing is that everyone on international duty (bar Armand Traore) arrived back in training injury free and will be available for the crucial game at Hull on Saturday.