England’s qualification to next year’s world cup was heralded, not surprisingly, by a football mad nation.

They deservedly beat an under strength  and lame looking Croatian team who never showed up right from the first whistle. England were good yesterday but I think Croatia were very poor.

Over all though, England has been very good during qualification and deservedly won all their matches.

However, I think the nation should put all that in perspective. Yes Coach and manager Capello seems to have done a great job on the psyche of the players since that has been their biggest problem over the years.

They must realise that, the countries they played against in their qualifying group are not or should not be the benchmark. They are yet to win a game against the top nations they’ve played against. Loosing to Spain and Germany and forcing a last minute draw against Holland after they withdrew all their top players must be a cause for reflection and not jubilation yet.

The real battle is only just beginning. They need to focus on testing their strengths against teams like Spain, Brazil, Germany, Italy. Its only when they can compete with the likes of these teams and beating them that they can begin to dream of winning the world cup.

The press must stop heaping pressure of the team and allow them to deliver before they call them world beaters because they are not yet there.

We’ll wait and see what happens in the days and months ahead…….