Today I'm going back four years to 2017 and England's World Cup Qualifier against Slovenia at Wembley Stadium.
It seems strange, looking back over such a relatively short period, how negatively this result was reported. England had come into the game off the back of a 0-4 away victory in Malta which was reported as "three late goals against exhausted opposition". Makes me wonder why Malta were exhausted? England's performance against Slovenia was far from inspiring though and we had to wait until late on before first-time captain Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game. Some 61,598 fans in the stadium that night amused themselves by throwing paper planes from the upper tier, such was the lack of real entertainment on the pitch, but, in my view, a win's a win. This particular victory ensured qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia but the press wanted to insist that our future opposition wouldn't be too concerned about facing England following their recent performances. It's funny but I don't remember any printed retractions or apologies after England's subsequent achievements in Russia and then Euro 2020. Indeed the press were beginning to sharpen their knives for Gareth Southgate and questions regarding his suitability were being asked. Fools!
Again, given that the game was only four years ago it's strange to see West Ham and England's most capped player on the night (74 caps) Joe Hart in goal for England such has been his subsequent fall from grace. In fact he could count himself lucky not to have given away a penalty early on in the game. In the second half programme cover star Marcus Rashford almost scored on the break with a delicate chip that beat Oblak the Slovenian keeper but didn't have the legs to make it over the line and was hacked clear. Moments later Raheem Sterling was unlucky when a goal bound shot was blocked by the Slovenian captain Bostjan Cesar (earning his 99th cap) for a corner. Then it was Hart's turn to prevent a goal at the other end when rushing bravely out and receiving a bang on the head from Gary Cahill for his troubles. It remained goalless into added time before Kyle Walker provided the telling cross for Kane to prod home for the win. It was Kane's 11th goal in 22 appearances for his country and, given that several of those were as substitute, his scoring ratio was and is more than acceptable. Undefeated England had qualified with a game to spare and we certainly would have taken that before the Qualification Group had begun.
England had gone 38 consecutive Qualification matches unbeaten but in the post match interviews Gareth Southgate had to explain to the media that England were unlikely to become Spain in the period of only nine months since he had been appointed (it was his 11th game in charge). England were ranked 15th by FIFA in their World rankings (Slovenia were 55th), one of the lower rankings in recent years and were making slow progress. We certainly weren't dreaming of reaching the World Cup Semi-Finals based on that performance but little did we know it but England were soon to catch up and indeed overtake the Spanish.
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