England v Ukraine

And so the first installment of something where I can say what I want. Based around mainly events in the sporting world, hopefully I may be able to amuse/interest people such as yourself. So here goes.

England have just lost to Ukraine. And though it hurts to admit, the goal we conceded was Rio Ferdinand's fault. Sin number one of a central defender is surely letting a long ball bounce once, giving an opposition member more than a sniff of an opportunity to cause trouble in the attacking third. He's far from 100% at the moment, this being only his fourth competitive start for club and country this season so far, and so he's still finding his fitness. Nor is he getting younger, and so, once the ball bounced past/over/around him, he may as well have given up the chase.

Spare some sympathy for Rob Green too; he had little or no alternative other than to come out with purpose and attack the ball, accept his fate and as it proved, concede the penalty kick. Though Chelsea outcast Shevchenko stepped up to worry no-one other than the ball boy behind the goal, England never really posed a meaningful threat afterwards and for me, were second best from that moment on.

You cannot blame Ferdinand entirely for the defeat; others had a few opportunities to get a strike in on goal, and on other days, these half-chances may have been taken. Ashley Cole and Terry had far from impeccable games, Heskey was largely ineffective up front, Rooney showed no more than glimmers. The only players who I thought made an effort to stand up were Carrick and Lampard, proving themselves a sound central partnership, with Carrick repaying Fabio Capello's good faith (who of course, suffered his first competitive defeat as England manager).

Neither should we forget the atmosphere, which was hostile to say the least, and you cannot blame the England players for having half an eye on the crowd just to check where the next flare was going to come from. The Ukranians obviously show a passion for the sport but most of them were volatile and verging on the unacceptable; hardly the most pleasant of places, as we have now found out. Their football team are nothing special, but they budged their way past our lacklustre 10 men with the help of their supporters.

A positive however; David James came on and made a couple of world-class stops, which did prompt the question "why wasn't he on the team-sheet in the first place?" and he'll surely be featuring prominently in the build-up to 2010. Another debate for perhaps another blog, but how on earth can Capello decide which keepers will be favoured for the trip to South Africa? James, Green, Foster, Kirkland, Robinson, Carson, Hart, all names that will be in the thoughts of the boss. A tricky choice.

Final stop Belarus, and we'll have to show a marked improvement on Wednesday; English fans won't be so forgiving if a similar display is presented to the 90,000 at Wembley, however you'd like to think we'd be more at home with the bigger pitch and will cause this particular opposition comparatively more problems.

Rio the supposed "untouchable" will be under pressure; plus there's no doubt his club manager will be watching closely. He should be prepared for some stick over the coming days; England too. Yes, Wednesday's a dead rubber, but they need to produce, just to leave that final satisfying taste in the mouths of the English public.