LONDON: England's laboured 3-0 victory over Andorra in Barcelona on Wednesday
failed to turn down the heat on embattled coach Steve McClaren.
England were booed by their own fans at half-time in the Olympic stadium
after a goalless first-half and McClaren was subjected to abuse and vitriolic
chanting for virtually the whole 90 minutes of a sterile display.
Steven Gerrard's second-half strikes may have avoided complete humiliation
but McClaren's decison to end the post-match Press conference after less
than two minutes simply gave the voracious tabloid pack another reason
to hound the former Middlesbrough manager.
"Macca Walks Out" was the back page headline in the Daily Mirror,
sarcastically adding ..."Sorry folks, it was only his post-match
press conference".
The Sun's back page said "Mac cracks but he's beaten the sack".
The Daily Mail was slightly more measured in its reaction, although one
article described his decision to shun the press as "graceless"
and questioned his ability to deal with the blows that come with the highest-profile
job in world football.
fter a traumatic few days, which also included a 0-0 draw in Israel, McClaren
will get some brief respite now as the focus returns to the Premiership
title race and the latter stages of the Champions League.
England do not play again until June 6 when they travel to Estonia, although
with their three group rivals all having comfortable looking matches four
days before they will almost certainly be playing catch-up by then.
Wednesday's results left them in fouth place in Group E on 11 points,
the same as Russia and Israel and two behind group leaders Croatia. Croatia
and Russia both have a game in hand.
"We've got to make sure we beat Estonia in June and are ready for
the run-in," McClaren said in The Times. "It's still in our
hands."
Despite public backing from the players, McClaren faces a huge task in
trying to win over the public before the next Euro 2008 qualifier in Estonia.
Patience with the English national side was already wafer thin after a
poor World Cup finals when McClaren was Sven-Goran Eriksson's assistant.
The 0-0 home draw with Macedonia followed by a 2-0 away defeat by Croatia,
the stalemate in Tel Aviv and Wednesday's scrappy victory against one
of the worst teams in world football has futher eroded faith in the team.
, 30 March 2007.
Russian ladies dream about happy marriage.
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