England v Bulgaria - as it happened

7.24pm: Hello and welcome to the dawning of the age of a fresh tomorrow of a shining new dawn that, come to think of it, looks quite a lot like the last age. England will take on Bulgaria at Wembley this evening with the same outfield players (barring injury enforced changes) they fielded while being dismembered by Germany at the World Cup. That team in full: Hart; G Johnson, Dawson, Jagielka, A Cole; Walcott, Milner, Barry, Gerrard; Defoe, Rooney You have to admire Capello in a way - for his rigidity and his cussedness - and also feel sorry for him. Blaming Capello for England's failings is utterly baffling. Is this why we hire these foreign managers? To put them in the stocks as highly paid scapegoats? And why does anyone have to be blamed at all? It is clear England as a country does not produce enough high quality players. This is why we underachieve. There is no space for blame here - who do you blame for mob-handed institutional decline? Instead we should be thinking about reform and system-repair and simply trying to get better. Blaming Capello for failing to put a World Cup winning band-aid on 70 years of managed decline just seems crazy. Or is that just me? 7.27pm: Having said all that it is still hard not be excited about new eras, even ones that feel part-used and pre-owned. I think my favourite new era was post Graham Taylor, the start of the Venables interlude when suddenly England were balanced and flexible and good on the ball in Tel's 3-5-2; and players like Alan Shearer, Darren Anderton and Steve McManaman suddenly came through as seriously decent international footballers. It seemed quite hopeful. But then, so did the Keegan era, at first. Paul Scholes carried him for a while, just like David Platt carried Taylor's team in the early days. Not sure how the current min-era's going to go. A Rooney rebirth would be nice. Maybe the start of the soon-to-be legendary Adam Johnson Era; the emergency-enforced-4-3-2-1-half-time-re-arrangement-that-ultimately-transformed-everything-era? It is hard to see exactly where England will go from here. They seem stuck. 7.41pm: Quentin Seik writes: "I know it's early doors but have ITV found a stellar pundit in Danny Murphy?! Now if Andy Townsend would just fall down a manhole..." I interviewed Murphy a few weeks ago. Very intelligent man. Andy Townsend remains a mystery. 7.42pm: Nick Smith interjects sagely: ""Or is that just me?"... but he's foreign, you know; swarthy italian who does't understand the British Bulldog spirit like whn EBJT threw himself at the ball when lying on the ground in that group game (but conspicuously failed to head that route one punt against Germany when upright). It's OBVIOUSLY his fault." 7.42pm: Michael Philip sounds incredibly calm and reasonable and like he;'d be really good to talk to in times of personal difficulty. "I think England will play well tonight, the so called disastrous world cup was pretty much as most objective folk anticipated, England are a little thin talent wise and expectation is modest post wc. Still, there are some decent players and now even the masses realize 'we' aren't by any measure World class, I think a great weight has been lifted...I expect a very comfortable win. 2 or 3 goals... this might be a very enjoyable game." 7.44pm: On new eras Eddie Nason has a great one: "I will admit that is was moderately conned by the new beginning of the Sven era, when we comfortably beat Spain 3-0 and passed the ball around between players in white shirts (it was quite a shock). I thought then that we might become an actual football team, sadly Spain did that instead." Amazing. Forgot about that. What genius we had then. Spain have clearly never recovered. 7.45pm: By the way, both teams in full: England Hart, Glen Johnson, Jagielka, Dawson, Ashley Cole, Walcott, Gerrard, Barry, Milner, Defoe, Rooney. Bulgaria Mihailov, Ivanov, Milanov, Manolev, Iliyan Stoyanov, Yankov, Angelov, Stiliyan Petrov, Martin Petrov, Bojinov, Popov. Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary) 7.46pm: Gary Naylor wonders. "Does the Bulgarian goalkeeper affect a toupée like his dad?" Wasn't that more of a weave, or plugs? It looked like a section of in-black privet hedge. 7.49pm: Ian Melven isn't rushing down to JD Sports. "any thoughts on this horrendous new england kit and exactly what part of 2009-2011 we were supposed to understand meant 'actually we'll rush out a crap new one in 2010 as well'?" My thoughts are: don't buy it. Don't buy any replica kit. Get a knitted scarf if you want or paint slogans on a butcher's coat and wear that. 7.52pm: Mike Wilner is in a uniquely internet-pedant style froth: "Dear me, has it come to this? Barney is fantasizing about a soon-to-be-golden-Adam-Johnson era. I remember the Dr. Johnson era, the Lyndon Johnson era, and even the Boris Johnson era. Does AJ rise to these levels? Shouldn't he at least, er, be playing?" Was about new eras. I suspect he will be involved in this one in some form. 7.54pm: Graham Sherriff writes: "Totally agree that England doesn't have the world-class players we think we do. But England does produce enough world-class players to string together three+ passes against the likes of Algeria... A lot of things went wrong in South Africa and a lack of technical skill only explains some of them." Fair enough. But it does keep happening, year after year. Teams with good enough players can overcome everything else not being perfectly right at the start - Spain did it this summer. 7.56pm: Anthems now. The Bulgarian one is slightly frightening but very stirring all the same. England's players pretty much all sing God Save The Queen to a man (Rooney excepted). Almost like they're trying to show us something. 7.58pm: Samuel Thomas writes: "Once Hargreaves is fit, I think that a 4-1-3-2 formation will be England's most potent. Hargreaves as the one, he does the work of two men, and, given that it is the right and left backs who are England's most effective crossers, Walcott up alongside Rooney in the central role, with johnson and young flanking Gerrard. Would like to see Rodwell brought in to partner Ferdinand giving us a mobile team all round." Sigh. Terrible shame. But Owen Hargreaves is miles away from playing for England. 1 min Bulgaria kick off after a long wait for the TV thumbs up and immediately they hoof the ball forward from front to back and Glen Johnson picks it up. When will these foreigners learn? Big cheers as Rooney mullers into a tackle. England are pressing like angry donkeys here. 3 mins some possession for England with Gerrard involved heavily in central midfield. Hopefully he can curb that killer ball tendency a bit tonight now he's playing as part of a central midfield pairing. 3 mins GOAL! ENGLAND 1-0 Defoe scores for England from six yards, ramming it into the roof of the net after some sublime work from Rooney, who finds Ashley Cole on a nice little inside run with a lovely lofted reverse pass. Cole managed ot get the ball across to Defoe and he wiffled the net. Excellent stuff and very nicely done by Rooney, being crafty in just the right areas there. 5 mins Gerrard gets a nasty one on his ankle in the centre circle and rolls around a bit but he's OK and England look great so far. They've had most of the ball and they've chased it well when they haven't. Bulgaria look woeful and terribly rushed so far, entirely put out by England's heavy hustling. Jim Adamson writes: "Since when did Ashley Cole get a reputation as a great crosser of the ball? He couldn't cross a pedestrianised high street. And don't get me started on Darren Bent. What does he have to do to get a fair crack in an England shirt?" Cole has a fairly good record so far tonight on that score. Not a very appealing chap, perhaps, but a really good player. 8 mins Lovely play by Johnson stepping away from Milanov and getting a decent cross in but it's nodded clear. Some nice clearing up at the back from Jagielka, who would have been an asset at the World Cup. He can at least run around a bit. Pangeran Siahaan is experiencing deja vu all over again: "It's South Africa all over again. Early pressure, check. Early goal, check. Expect Bulgaria to pull an equalizer with a gaffe from Joe Hart." 11 mins We've settled into a slightly surreal pattern where England are patiently keeping the ball and passing from side to side looking for an opening. Oh good, it's hoofed over the top for Theo Walcott to chase and he's off side. That was briefly confusing. Martin Petrov makes a decent break down the Bulgar left but his cross is scuffed and weak. AndBill Chilton muses: "Don't want to be presumptuous or anything but we must be nailed on certs to lift the Euro Cup in 2012 after that start." 14 mins England make a decent break from inside their own half but first Rooney and then Walcott play wasteful hurried passes from about 40 yards out, trying to whip in something low and dangerous when there was no real need. So far what England have done best is close down and win the ball back. I know that's important and everything, but, you know. 16 mins A crossfield early ball from Milner punted long for Walcott to battle for in the air. Really. The ball skims away out of play. Must confess I'm getting the equivalent of acid trip flashbacks watching some of this. Are we really ready for all it? I still feel fragile. But good pressure all the same and England are more patient here trying to get Milner in on the left but the ball runs out of play. Still, nothing quite like this yet. It is superb. Turkey from earlier on tonight. 18 mins Johnson makes a bit of space to slide Walcott in inside the full back and he hares towards the goal line and puts in a low cross without really looking. It's cleared easily enough, but England do look a lot more interested in this - they have the perfect opponents tonight. Bulgaria are not going to match their work rate on current form and when that happens England usually win. Richard Micalleff wonders: "Does your name have to end in V to play in the Bulgarian national team?" 20 mins Decent Bulgarian break down the right, the ball is crossed in and Johnson successfully avoids heading it into his own net. Nice safe catch by Hart. Not the most thrilling game so far but England will be very happy. A win and maybe a clean sheet is all they want from this really. Raymond King asks: "Am I the only one shouting "to the pub!" every time Popov gets a mention? It's driving my partner nuts." Funny, I've been sitting here shouting "to the post office". And oh I say Popov plays in Bojinov and he's well placed for a shot but Jagielka does what Terry might not have done and catches up with him in time to put in a tackle. Good defending, but a bit slack in front of him. 24 mins Bulgaria are having more of this. Does this always happen with England? A bravura start where everyone can remember what they're meant to be doing and they press like lunatics and then a terrible drift while they're not sure what to do next? They keep playing long ambitious passes from midfield that don't work out. Kimberley Taylor wonders: "Both Bulgaria and England have outstanding players who still play domestically but have retired from international football. In you esteemed opinion, would Scholes and Beckham for England, or Berbatov for Bulgaria have the biggest impact if the came out of retirement??" Beckham? Eh? 27 mins Ashley Cole sets off on nice skating run and plays Milner in for an other wasted cross. He has been poor so far but Cole has been taking on more responsibility and has looked quite imposing. Popov (for a meat pie) looks quite sprightly and alert for Bulgaria, unaware of any semi-humorous connotations in his noble and seasoned Bulgarian surname. 30 mins Lovely pass from Barry finds Cole and he plays in Milner, who scuffs a shot from 30 yards that the keeper flops on. Neithe rof England;'s wide players is really doing it so far. Walcott has disappeared and Milner keeps reminding us how good David Beckham was at crossing and shooting, and how he isn't quite David Beckham. On the V issue Philip notes that "A bloke called Gaidarski played in the 1970 World Cup, then Mitarski in 1994. I think they may have relaxed restrictions a bit now." 32 mins Walcott pops up suddenly, twisting and turning and digging out a cross from a dangerous area that wins England a corner, which is then muddled away by Bulgaria's massed defence. Generally England have settled into a comfortable sideways shuffle in midfield without really looking like they're that confident they know what to do next. Gary Naylor is an expert hankerer: "The hankering for Paul Scholes is absurd. He never played as well for England as he does for Manchester United and got plenty of cards putting pressure on his yeam-mates to do his tackling for him. Hanker after Alan Ball, if hanker you must - he won a World Cup in an England shirt." 35 mins Jagielka whacks a long ball forward down the left channel and Defoe does well to gather it by the corner flag but Milner somehow manages to be offside as the ball is worked back. Phil Sawyer has found peace: "I'm really trying to concentrate on this game but I keep finding myself drifting off and looking up old Ukrainians videos on youtube and suchlike. I think I may finally be experiencing the inner peace of giving up on England and just being nildly interested in the ride." And Samuel Thomas is also having terrible trippy flashbacks "Dont see any need to get Terry back into the fold just yet. Can't quite get the plodding images of Terry (the rumbling barrell vs. Klose), Barry (the 'hamstring pull' vs. Ozil), and Lampard (the 'can't really make it round mertesacker to cross it') out of my head from Bloemfontein just yet. Not sure I ever will." 38 mins Ashley Cole drives forward own the left and slips it inside to Rooney but his return pass doesn't quite make it. Rooney looks keen as always but you sense his doors of perception are not quite fully prised open. The man on the TV says "England deserve a second for their general play" but I'm not sure that's right. 1-0 is fair but they haven't made any real chances. Here they go again, the ball worked right across form Gerrard to Walcott with Bulgaria stretched but the cross isn't good enough and the keeper grabs it. 42 mins Nice play in midfield from Angelov, whose name makes me want to say "post and bar" for some reason, but he's closed down well by Gerrard and Barry who are, if not exactly bossing midfield, then at least largely telling it what to do. And then some lovely play by Milner on the left, skipping inside, doing a quick stepover and shooting hard with his right foot. Corner for England that ends up with Walcott putting in a fine low cross that Defoe almost gets on the end of. Much better from England. And Ivo Stoyanov writes: "Some Bulgaria names do end in –ski, but those are only reserved for crap football players. Also, we don't name our young ones until they are 16 or 18 so that their football skills can be properly gauged. In all seriousness, the large majority of Bulgarian names do end in a V, so it's only natural that most of the national players' names do as well." 44 mins Bulgaria do a bit of tippy-tappy passing stuff in midfield, quickly interrupted by some classy hustling from Rooney and Milner. Oh yes. You cut that out sir. Roger Foster scolds: "You ought to tone down your criticism of England's (so far) scrappy and insipid football. Recall that the point of these qualification games is simply and solely to win. Clearly, England are saving the guile and creativity of their game for Euro 2012." Am I criticising? It's not been bad by any means. Just kind of samey and over-familiar. 45+1 mins HALF TIME . And there we are. That wasn't too bad. I'm pleased for Jermain Defoe - he seems to be scoring for England now quite regularly (13 in total now) as he should, he is a class finisher. Bulgaria have done almost nothing so far and England will be cautiously pleased. Back in a few minutes with more expert analysis. All right. More of your emails. Tony Farmer muses: "Angelov "the Morning" or Angelov "the North" is what springs to mind for me." It's a hard "a" I believe, but nice song and nice statue. Garry O'Connor has had a vision: "The main problem is that Gerrard, Barry, Milner, Lamps and to lesser extent Rooney are the all the same player. Big, strong, but not very fast. Good on the ball for big men but not rabbit quick. Today's game has passed that type of player bye. You shouldn't have 5 of the same type of player on the field." Spain have a lot of nimble titches. Mark Guthrie points out: "It's good to see that ITV are taking the sensible route by not heaping huge amounts of pressure on England's young play... oh, hang on, what was that? "Peter Shilton established himself as the England number one at the age of 23 after only five or six caps". No pressure Joe, no pressure at all." 46 mins ENGLAND KICK OFF the second half and they're on the advance right away and no doubt about to put in the usual post half-time five-minute hyper-pressing shift. England's shorts by the way: very good. They make them look like someone who isn't actually England: maybe France or even Brazil. Like a fretful long pass-humping Brazil. 48 mins Bulgaria have a free kick in a decent position after a foul by Theor Walcott buy Jagielka attakcs the ball well and heads it clear. He has been one of England's best player so far, what with being a bit on trial and all. I'm very pleased for him after the mistake against Spain in the friendly and then the injury and missing the World Cup. Her is the kind of defender who could do well in international football. 50 mins Best moment of the match: Rooney picks up the ball 40 yards out skips forward looks left and right, waits for Gerrard to catch up, then thinks oh well and dinks in a lovely chip that almost catches Mihailov off his line but he gets back to palm it over. That was lovely and totally out of kilter with everything else in a huff and puff match, barring Rooney's chipped pass for the goal. 52 mins England fall asleep at the back, Bulgaria spring forward and manages to rustle up a shot that fizzes wide. Dawson to blame there. And Robin Hazlehurst has this: "While I'm at it, Popov is the name of the Russian credited with inventing radio, television and much else. The USSR didn't like to admit that such things were first invented in the decadent West so they credited the mysterious Popov with finding everything before Marconi et al, but not publicising it. So the Popov playing for Bulgaria now could be a distant descendant of the man who may have invented radio. Popov to check the half-time scores on five-live maybe?" 54 mins Oh dear. Dawson looks to have injured his knee quite badly here I'm afraid. He turned it over in a tangle running back with a Bulgarian player. This is a bad injury I think. The pictures are not that nice. 55 mins Dawson is going to be stretchered off and Cahill will come on. Terrible this for Dawson and for Spurs and let's just hope its not that bad. Cahill, however, now has a chance and I hope he takes it because he is a good quick aggressive defender. And sorry to say Dawson is in tears coming off on the stretcher. 58 mins England's central defenders are Jagielka and Cahill. And why not - I think they're both very decent players and only lack experience and a sense of swaggeringly self-important celebrity. Walcott goes on one of his head down sprints on the right wing and wins a corner that Cahill almost gets on to, only for Johnson to hammer the ball miles over the bar when he should have passed. Duh! Keep the bleeding thing. And Ivo Stoyanov is back: "The G in Angelov is read as in Gary Neville. Who incidentally is also not retired from international football, may I just add. 61 mins GOAL! ENGLAND 2-0 BULGARIA . A real topsy turvey 30 seconds as Hart makes a decent save at one end as the ball is blasted right at him from Petrov's cut-back. 14 seconds later the ball is in the Bulgarian net as Rooney leads the break and picks just the right ball to Defoe. He runs on on goal and very simply slips the ball into the net past the keeper. Deofe has two. Rooney again made it. England now have real actual proper looking front pair. 64 mins Hart will be pleased with that bit of action. Angelov had the shot, not towards the ahem corner of post and bar, but right at the keeper and he showed good non-chocolate wrists to bat it away. Rooney also picked just the right pass when others might not have. That is his real skill. And lok - another decent save from Hart as he blocks point blank from a weirdly unmarked Popov. That really was a good save from Hart, "making himself big" and blocking with his chest. Cahill did well to block the follow up, but England's defence did look a bit wonky there. 67 mins Quite liking this England team now, a few fresh faces at least and Defoe and Rooney have been quite convincing here. Jon Wittenberg writes: "Too bad Theo Walcott hasn't brought his club form with him. Time to bring on Adam Johnson (he's on the subs bench, yes?)." Yes. Get him on. More fresh blood. 69 mins England have a couple of corners and they do look in control of this now. I wonder if we could see a Defoe hat-trick, you know he'll be desperate for it. Mike Jones writes: "Funny: the American Fox Sports feed announcers are doing nothing but whining about Jagielka at his every touch: "Obviously not up to this calibre of play...." etc. Ditto Glen Johnson... Are they watching a different match?" Jagielka has been very good. I think the key is in the phrase "the American Fox Sports feed announcers". Sorry, but you know. 71 mins Walcott has one of his twitchy moments when you do wonder a bit as he picks up the ball in a decent position for a shot but just scoops it wildly miles wide of the goal like a 4-year-old or a baffled martian. More kudos for Hart however, all in black, as he catches a corner with balletic ease. I fear people will build him up unnecessarily after this. He has played well. But steady on. 74 mins Johnson will come on in a moment for Walcott, who has looked keen. And here he is going off after playing in what will surely be his 13th England win (a record for games without defeat I hear). Like a Question of Sport's mystery guest round Ben Dunn has more questions than answers: "How will England improve by the automatic return of Lampard and Terry? And has Capello stumbled upon the solution of the Gerrard and Lampard problem by not letting one of them play with the other" 76 mins Defoe almost gets the hat trick. Gerrard has a powerful low shot on goal, Mihailov saves, but Defoe is already sprinting towards him before Gerrard actually shot looking for some bits and pieces and the keeper does very well to bat it away. Some thoughts from Guy Hornsby for poor old Dawson: "I'm an England fan, of course, but that injury to Dawson, as a Spurs fan, could be an absolute disaster for our Champions League hopes. Yes, we've got Gallas, and King and Bassong, but he's been a rock for us this last few seasons." 79 mins Cole puts in another surge down the left but it's well defended by Yankov, who slides in to concede a corner. Another poor-ish one as Milner's delivery is so so and no one really gets near attacking it. John Terry: he's good at that sort of thing. Dan in Maidenhead makes a fine point: "Hi Barney, is it me or is anyone else fed up with the itv plonkers talking about whether Capello shows emotion or not?! IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!" You're right. It is very boring. Brendan Large wonders: "Even watching and reading the MBM I have not noticed the presence of Gareth Barry this evening. He's not great at destroying the other teams attacks and therefore protecting the England defence which should be his number one job and he's done sweet FA going forward." He has been steady. It's what England need in there. 82 mins wow, actually some lobvely flowing play from England in midifeld feeding forward into attack, Rooney and Adam Johnson combining really well. That was almost Germany-like. In fact here's Roman Johnson: "If it wasn't for the chirpy Great Escape theme playing in the background, I might have thought I was watching Germany with that quick-break goal." 83 mins GOAL! ENGLAND 3-0. Very simple, neat passing move, perhaps made by the disorientating fluency of the last few attacks. Defoe carries the ball forward, plays it square to Rooney, who plays it square to Johnson on the left edge of the box. He makes a yard of space and spanks a powerful shot low and into the net. Very well played and he is delighted with that. 86 mins GOAL! ENGLAND 4-0 BULGARIA. Defoe has a hat trick. Great play from Rooney again, releasing Defoe on a diagonal run with a perfectly weighted ball and he finishes effortlessly, with great poise and balance on the run. 87 mins Um. One last thing though, Spurs fans. Defoe has also gone off after injuring himself scoring that goal. His celebration consisted off leaning over holding his ankle and grimacing. Not quite a Dawson but he did look in some pain. 89 mins The last 20 minutes have been very fluent from England and they now deserve these goals. Rooney hasn't scored but he has looked very good and has made - I think - all four goals. Defoe has looked genuinely sharp in front of goal. Albeit, Bulgaria have looked really poor, barely up to speed and unwilling to chase and harry as other teams do at this level. Milner gets a yellow for a hack. 90+1 mins The band boom on with their Great Escape and this has been a lighter, more persuasive England in the second half. It's almost as though South Africa never.. No sorry I still can't really think about it without getting a terrible attack of nausea and dizziness. Oddly Bulgaria have suddenly started to run around a lot more. Not sure why. 90+3 mins FULL TIME. England have won 4-0 here and they played very well in the last half hour or so. Jagielka and Cahill had a refreshing look about them, a bit more athleticism there, and Rooney and Defoe were a proper partnership in attack. This was probably as much as England could have done. They will wear a cautious leer of hope tomorrow morning, which is more than we've been able to say for a while. That's all from me for now. Thanks for all your emails. Barney.