England v Montenegro

I really hope that Mirko Vucinic manages to score against England on Tuesday. Just so he can have the chance to repeat this bizarre yet undeniably brilliant celebration from table-topping Montenegro's previous qualifier against Switzerland.

England 1-4 Germany

So, England lost to Germany. Were we surprised? I was, as I had them down to win 2-1. Yet it wasn't the worst performance I've ever seen from England, and I don't quite know why the pundits were saying that it was.

Clearly the first goal was an awful piece of defending. To concede like that at such a high level is unbelievable. Terry, who was watching the German midfield rather than the flight of the ball, ran right under the goal kick and then - given that pace isn't his best attribute - was never going to catch up once he'd actually looked up and seen the ball fly over his head.

The defence was weak again for the second goal, but to be frank they were pulled apart by some wonderful movement from the German forwards. Sometimes a team just beats you, and that was the case with this goal.

Upson's goal was good, and for a 15-minute period we were the better team. The mistake by the officials was obviously unfortunate, but sometimes these things happen. Great teams rise above things like that. Poor sides can't. England didn't. I suspect Germany would have, if it had happened to them in that game.

The rest of it was an attempt by a team totally lacking drive and determination to break down a confident young side with a good defence. It wasn't a great surprise that Germany were able to counter-attack so well.

I'm not really sure that we knew what we were doing, at any point in the game. Germany played much better, changing the way they played to suit the phases of the game beautifully. In the end they more than deserved it.

Rule Britannia!

Did anyone else find it more than a little inappropriate that fans were singing Rule Britannia during the England v Slovenia match?

I'm all for showing your support, but singing a song about imperial slavery while in Africa is surely a bit thoughtless!

Terry and the press

I think it's pretty hard to like John Terry given his previous actions. His indiscretions have disqualified him from leading the national side and the media love to jump up and down on his reputation. Why on earth did he decide to come out and hold that stupid press conference?

A player with a rap sheet like Terry's cannot command sufficient respect to lead criticism of the coach like that. He was clearly unhappy with the USA and Algeria results, as were the press (and the fans), but Capello still has a great deal of authority. The strength of England's qualifying campaign and the fact we can still get out of Group C means that Capello was always going to be given the leeway by the press to make his own decisions. They were never going to back Terry and call for the manager to heed his advice.

Terry has made a series of bad judgements in his life and this was another. No one even cares if he has valid points - and playing Joe Cole instead of Lennon or Wright-Phillips is a very good point - because he has lost the respect needed to make them. He simply has to learn to avoid the press. That they would turn on him and see him as a troublemaker was absolutely predictable.