By David Lee Wheatley
Three Lions stutter to draw
Montenegro played host to England last night amid a hostile atmosphere and managed to grab the point they required to consolidate their position at the head of the group.
England looked as if they meant business from the off, when Rooney saw a slip by the keeper when back-peddling, which prompted him to send a delightful chip goalwards only for the ball to bounce back out off the left-hand post.
Glen Johnson then came forward to fire a storming right-footed effort that bounced off the top of the crossbar via a slight touch by the goalkeeper, according to the officials.
Captain Gerrard went over to take the resultant corner and he found Rooney completely unmarked in the box. The Manchester United forward nodded home to score for a fifth consecutive England appearance.
The away side largely controlled the remainder of the half without creating too many clear-cut opportunities and took a one-goal advantage in at the break.
The second half was a wholly different story, as Montenegro tweaked their formation to put England on the back-foot.
It was clear the Montenegrins had been given instructions to attack every time they gained possession and their vociferous fans got louder and louder in support of their heroes.
England survived several scares, but an equaliser had looked on the cards for the whole of the second period and it duly arrived late on after a massive scramble in the area.
England couldn't reproduce their first half superiority and paid the price in conceding that late goal. Now, they face an uphill task to qualify for the World Cup judging by current form.
The English face three prestigious friendlies followed by three home qualifiers and one away; Moldova, Montenegro and Poland all visit Wembley across September and October of this year, while a long round-trip to Kiev to meet Ukraine immediately follows the Moldova match.
It certainly means that England's fate is in their own hands; should they win all four qualification games then they'll top the group, thus booking a place at Brazil 2014. However, the concern is the lack of consistent performance levels amongst many of the players and that must be rectified to allow the English to appear in the upcoming World Cup finals.
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