Let's not get too carried away ... or too negative

England play Sweden tonight after what I thought was a decent performance against the World Champions Spain on Saturday, but I was as perplexed at the negative comments of the experts (especially those on the radio), as I was when people started raving about the squad when we qualified for last year's World Cup.

As soon England had qualified, too many people were suggesting they could "go all the way" and seemed to conveniently forget that we had played no nation of any real note in the qualifying groups.

The same thing has happened this time and so I hope that as we close in on the Euro finals next year, everyone remains realistic about our chances.

On the flip side, I actually thought that the England team did incredibly well against Spain. The side was missing at least six first choice players and their replacements did 'a job'. Spain are head and shoulders above every other side in the world at the moment - not just England - and so it's up to the coaches to find the right tactics to deal with them. They did and the players implemented them perfectly.

If they had tried to slug it out toe to toe with Spain, they would have been torn apart. But they played to their strengths and nicked the win. So good on 'em.

For me, tonight's game against Sweden though is probably more of an even match and will hopefully tell us more about our attacking options. Mind you England are more than capable of underestimating them in maybe the same way that the Spanish underestimated the resolve of the England team.