LIKE seafront amusements at the end of the season, the football
sideshows are fast closing down. In England, the cups have been handed
over and European qualification decided. The domestic campaign staggers
to a conclusion this Bank Holiday weekend with Leicester City meeting
Swindon Town today in a play-off final to decide which of them ascends
to the promised land of the Premier League.
For the national team, however, a climax is approaching in Norway on
Wednesday, and not for another week after that, when the Norwegians
visit Holland, will World Cup Group 2 shut down for summer. Unless
Saturday's performance during the fortuitous 1-1 draw in Poland is
improved upon, it will not be a soothing break for manager Graham
Taylor.
Suggesting to any Poles before the game that England would not
necessarily win by a hatful was construed as mere politeness. The home
supporters -- those who were not more concerned with throwing sticks and
stones at policemen -- were as surprised by England's passivity as their
own team's vibrant showing.
Had Poland lost, they would have forfeited much credibility as
contenders for one of the two qualifying places. Instead their football,
even without players like the injured Robert Warzycha and Montpellier's
Jacek Ziober, has confirmed the seriousness of that challenge, adding a
new dimension to the section.
The effect is that Norway, England, Holland, and Poland are separated
by only one point, having played 22 games among them and lost just one
(Holland's defeat in Oslo). If Poland remain the outsiders, it is
because of failure to clock up enough goals in victories over the two
minnows, Turkey and San Marino.
Although it is likely that trips to Oslo and Wembley in September will
cost them heavily, this is hardly the moment to belittle their chances
in comparison to those of England, who for much of Saturday night were
deeply unimpressive.
The flowing football that had left Holland two goals down at Wembley
was a distant memory and it took Taylor's half-time dressing down
followed by the introduction of Ian Wright to claw back a point, without
which England would this morning lie fourth in the table.
The removal of what was almost becoming a psychological block over
Wright's first international goal was one of few pluses which were
heavily outweighed by the minuses. Paul Ince's wild side resurfaced,
bringing a second yellow card and suspension; Paul Gascoigne, unable
again to influence the course of the match, also could miss the Norway
game; Chris Wood's discomfort with the new back pass rule almost led him
to concede one of the most embarrassing goals of recent years; above
all, perhaps, the lack of confidence apparent in Des Walker's play ever
since he forsook Nottingham for Genoa reached unthinkable proportions.
Whether England's supposedly most reliable defender goes down as the
unwitting scorer of the Polish goal or not, the alarming thing was how
much ground Adamchuk made up on him before they lunged at the ball so
carelessly mis-routed by John Barnes.
Meanwhile West Bromwich Albion bounced back into the first division
and left luckless Port Vale with heartbreak. Vale had amassed 89 points
only to lose out to Bolton Wanderers on the last day of the season.
Vale, who finished four points ahead of Albion in the final table,
were holding their own at Wembley before Peter Swan's red card after 59
minutes for a professional foul.
Andy Hunt opening the scoring seven minutes later. Man of the match
Nicky Reid then sent Albion's 41,000 fans into even greater raptures
when he fired home the second eight minutes to go. In the last minute,
striker Kevin Donovan wrapped it up for Ossie Ardiles and his men by
grabbing Albion's third to leave Vale crestfallen.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article