Southgate nailed on for England

Scotland manager Gordon Strachan said he believed his side’s 3-0 defeat to England at Wembley was “not fair” on his players and did not reflect the effort they put in.

After 50 minutes Adam Lallana diverted a header into the corner of Craig Gordon’s net to give England a perhaps undeserving 2-0 lead.

The fallout to that and this result is likely to dominate the coming days, with England securing a 3-0 win as Southgate’s men made their chances count against profligate Scotland – their biggest win in this fixture since 1975.

On the result, he added: “We caused some problems for ourselves, at times we were sloppy so that is an area we can improve on”.

“I think he’s got the ideal manager to work with and to hone and for all of our defenders, that’s what we want to encourage”.

“If we’re to be different, if we’re to progress, then we have to encourage players”.

While Southgate himself was coy on his prospects in the immediate aftermath of a Wembley win that takes England ever closer to the 2018 World Cup, it’s 8/1 and up for anyone else to land the job.

“England were clinical. I think they scored with their first chance of the game”.

“I feel really proud of the way they played and the way they went about their job”, Strachan said. “We have to work at one or two things, but I don’t know if we can work any harder than we do in terms of playing and training and coaching”.

Strachan would have been encouraged by what he had seen in the first 45, but whatever Gareth Southgate said at half-time seemed to work.

While England and Scotland defied FIFA’s opposition to symbols which might be seen as political by wearing armbands featuring poppies to mark Armistice Day, emotions ran high in Paris as France hosted Sweden a year on from terror attacks in the French capital.

“However, before that point there were some moments where we weren’t as controlled and we had to dig in at times”.

“For 75 minutes, we had a right good go and just as many chances but the difference was England took theirs”.

England eased to a comfortable victory over Scotland during the World Cup qualifying clash on Friday night, but that didn’t stop fans being embroiled in controversy. But I also think there’s a group of staff, it’s not just about me. “I have to think about everybody in that dressing room”.

“It looks like they will have a couple of players missing, but they have strength in depth, a clear identity of how they play through their age groups”. We have outstanding full-backs (Danny Rose and Kyle Walker) and we used their talent and strengths, which are getting forward and crossing.

England looked a little surprised as they found themselves pushed back inside their opening half for the opening period of the game.