Was so busy catching up with my album reviews last night that I failed to mention England's winning start in their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign with a 2-1 victory against Slovakia. On a dodgy pitch and amidst disgraceful racist chanting from the home support, Sven's men made bloody hard work of it but despite their unconvincing performance somehow managed to scrape three valuable points. As unimpressed as I was, if it had been the Germans who'd done the same we'd all be eulogising about their mental strength and professionalism so perhaps we should give credit where it's due.

We'll all be looking for a bit more style in Wednesday's home game to Macedonia, mind.