Ireland and England play out tedious draw

England were held to a draw away to the Republic of Ireland, with the sweltering conditions leading to a stagnant end-of-season friendly between the local rivals.

The visitors were struggling to find any kind of rhythm and their afternoon was summed up four minutes later when midfielder Adam Lallana sent a right-wing corner straight into touch.

“I think he’s going through a bad time publicly”, Hodgson said. “I know that is getting dealt with so he will concentrate on doing the best for England over these next two games”. We’ve had a good run, a year nearly unbeaten, but we came here believing if we played our best football we could win the game. “Going into the game against Slovenia, there’s a lot of things we want to improve on”.

England had put up a spirited fight to draw in Italy in their previous fixture, but there was a clear lack of spark from Hodgson’s team against the Irish.

Ireland went close when Daryl Murphy had a shot tipped wide while England captain Wayne Rooney would have been through on goal but failed to control a Jordan Henderson pass.

Wilshere has insisted that he is eager to embrace his deep-lying midfield role in the England team, yet it takes away so much of what he can bring.

“Roy Hodgson is a big believer in players training well, so if you train well you will get your chance”.

“They weren’t true England fans who were causing the trouble all those years ago”.

The authorities are certainly taking no chances, with police clamping down on known troublemakers and the Football Association writing to all 3,000 supporters urging them to refrain from any inflammatory anti-IRA chanting.

“It was exactly what we needed”, said Ireland manager Martin O’Neill.

“We could have got a couple of goals in the first half and defended pretty stoutly when we had to”.

“Now of course all of United States wish them the very best of luck in the tournament”. Members of a Neo-Nazi group, Combat 18, were located in the Upper West Stand of the stadium and they started throwing missiles and debris onto the pitch and into the lower stands in a premeditated attempt to start a riot.

Luckily for the ex- Aston Villa manager, it looks as though he will have a full squad to choose from.

“John O’Shea’s calf was tightening up on him, so I made a change there”.

David McGoldrick- Was lively enough in his 45 minutes, but the Ipswich man is 29 and you have to wonder is he the future when Robbie Keane eventually quits?

There were some jeers during the playing of the national anthems and more audible boos when England fans burst into a version of the God Save The Queen shortly before half-time, but thankfully the atmosphere was nothing like that which prevailed last time.

Match report: Page 7.