Hurrah! We've Scored a GOAL!

Fabio Capello’s England side fell victim to a goal early in the second period from Nilmar to leave England still without a win in eight matches on neutral territory against the Brazilians. Fabiano also missed a penalty for Brazil, who unsurprisingly dominated possession.

It was Wayne Rooney’s first game as England captain which ended in defeat as a severely depleted England side were beaten by five time world champions Brazil in Qatar.

Brazil were aided by an England midfield which gave the ball away far too easily and consequently the front two of Rooney and Bent were starved of any worthwhile service, although this was no vintage performance by Brazil and their trickery was largely confined to in front of the back four.

Capello’s squad had already been decimated by the absence of David James, Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham, Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott and Emile Heskey.

But he was forced to further reorganise when skipper John Terry lost his battle to recover from an Achilles problem and midfielder Michael Carrick was ruled out with an ankle injury. It meant Gareth Barry and Rooney were the only first-choice players in the starting eleven, in contrast to Brazil who were virtually at full strength.

Capello now has four months to reflect on how many of his fringe players pushed their claims to be part of his World Cup plans before the next international in early March. Only Aston Villa winger James Milner, who was making his full debut, could feel he furthered his cause on the left wing to any significant effect.

A crowd of over 25000 saw second half goals from Wes Hoolahan and Gary Doherty give City their sixth win in seven League One games at the expense of struggling Tranmere.

Tranmere had their moments and City had to be grateful to Fraser Forster for pulling off a fine save and a bad miss by Chris Shuker and it took the in form Canaries an hour to break the deadlock with Hoolahan tucking away his eighth of the season after John Welsh had handled an attempt by Adam Drury.

Wholesale changes saw only three of the side that started Tuesday’s fixture at Swindon retain their places, while Michael Theoklitos was named as a substitute after Declan Rudd suffered a knee injury in training, Tranmere also had their own injury problems and were only able to name six substitutes.

In a game played in awful conditions, gusty wind and driving rain there where very few chances in the first half and there was a big scare for City three minutes before the break when Forster produced a unbelievable one handed save to keep Lamberts side on level terms.

Rovers performance at times contradicted their lowly position and Shuker did superbly to create a chance for himself after the break, but as Forster closed down the angle, he managed only to strike the outside of the post.

That miss proved costly when the goal City had been looking for came on the hour, after a shot from Drury struck Welsh’s raised arms which resulted in the referee pointing immediately to the spot. After lengthy protests from Tranmere players, Hoolahan tucked away the penalty left footed for his eighth goal of the season.

Doherty grabbed his first of the season and effectively finished the contest 10 minutes from time when Lappin’s cross from the right was too strong with any of the Tranmere defence failing to clear, but Hoolahan retrieved it at the far post and threaded a pass through to Doherty to tuck it home from close range.

Paulton goal hero Martin missed a golden chance to make it 3-0 in stoppage time when Hoolahan put him clear and he rounded Daniels but fired into the side netting, and the striker was then denied by Daniels with a fine save after he got his head to cross from Lappin.

A pretty mediocre display from either side, and although you can argue that the weather conditions didn’t help the situation, it is results like this on the back of a meager performance that will keep Lambert’s side applying the pressure in the play off places.

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