Glen Johnson's rocket strike to seal a 3-1 friendly win over Mexico was in response to the dressing room fireworks from Fabio Capello at half-time.

The England boss dished out a rollicking despite his players going into the break leading 2-1.

Mexico saw plenty of the ball in the first half at Wembley, and it was only their poor finishing and Robert Green's saves that prevented them from leading. Capello demanded more aggression from his players, with Johnson's belter right after the restart followed by a more controlling performance.

"The manager told us what he thought at half-time - we had

Forget about metatarsals - this summer it's all about ankles. Gareth Barry's ankle to be precise.

We were supposed to find out if the Manchester City midfielder would be fit to travel to South Africa by today but, with a medical assessment neither ruling him out nor deeming him fully recovered, Fabio Capello will wait until the last possible moment to make a decision over his inclusion.

The state of Barry's ankle is the England injury saga that has become a prerequisite before any major tournament. It may not quite have the headline appeal of the metatarsal scares of the likes of David

At least Sunday's performance against Japan helped dampen the frenzy that always seems to accompany England's departure to a major tournament.

Now, even the most optimistic England fan must know that Fabio Capello's side have absolutely no chance of winning the World Cup.

Victory over their fellow qualifiers in Graz could not mask a poor display that, like the game against Mexico last week, posed more questions than found answers, and exposed yet more frailties.

And, unfortunately, it also served to reopen the great Steven Gerrard-Frank Lampard debate once again.

With just 10 days to the start

It was one of the greatest shocks in recent football history, an event that proved you should never write anyone off, and that the Magic of the FA Cup^TM is still well and truly alive.

No, not Leeds' win at Old Trafford, but the moment during Alex Ferguson's post-match interview when it looked like he was going to be gracious in defeat.

Breaking the habit of a lifetime, Fergie paid tribute to Leeds and admitted his side were not good enough.

He said: "Leeds had far bigger appetite than us. Human beings can always surprise you but we didn't expect that today.

"I am shocked by the performance

So rooted in the culture of Manchester United is Ryan Giggs
that, when he took to the stage to collect the BBC Sports Personality award
last night, Early Doors expected the following speech:

"I would have preferred three points against
Villa."

At the very least, wanted an explanation of who
exactly the bloke with the mutton chops sitting next to him was.

Instead we had an unprepared but not embarrassing recitation
of platitudes, with Giggs claiming it was "up there" with the many
other pieces of silverware he has won.

However, ED suspects it will not have pride of place in the Giggs
trophy

Franz
Beckenbauer once said of the Germany
team: "You could take all of them, put them in a bag and hit them with a stick.
Whoever got hit
would deserve it."

Early Doors
feels similarly about the Premier League relegation battle, albeit in a less
ruthlessly Teutonic way.

Over the
last two months, we have waited for teams to put together a run of results and
get out of trouble. With the possible exception of Blackburn,
nobody has.

Teams have
shown themselves to be mentally fragile, physically weak and technically
substandard as they have proceeded to lose a succession of 'must-win'
games.

When

In all the excitement of a big event, it's easy to overlook certain key details.

As you run around looking for your passport and double checking your plane tickets before leaving to go on holiday, it's easy to to leave your toothbrush, phone charger and Macaulay Culkin at home.

In the rush to get the turkey in the oven and presents opened on Christmas Day, you might neglect to go and pick up grandma from the home.

Or, in your wild scramble to recruit a new manager for your club, how easily can you forget to sack your current one first?

Fortunately for Real Madrid, the world's media happened

36 minutes - That is exactly how long it took some England fans to turn on Fabio Capello.

Just after the half-hour mark, with the game scoreless and England looking less than fluent, a section of the crowd decided they had had enough of this Italian character.

Their ire was raised by a patient passing move that saw the ball moved back to halfway and switched to the left, resulting in a shot on target by Joe Cole.

Where were the centre-backs lumping long balls in the general direction of the opposition box? It was all too much for some people.

Four minutes later, just as the malcontents put the