England’s escape to victory is huge relief for Southgate

DURING what has been a desperate search for progress Gareth Southgate can at least now claim that his side did not go to pieces when supposedly inferior opposition in blue breached their defence.

In that sense this represented a vital step forward when compared to that defeat by Iceland 15 months ago, an important victory given how striking a resemblance Southgate was starting to bear to another former Middlesbrough manager beneath the glare of the Wembley arch.

If Southgate thought he had already endured the nadir of his career at Wembley, he must have spent more than half an hour last night wondering if that penalty miss was about to be relegated to second place.

It would have been a long 35 minutes prior to Eric Dier’s crucial equaliser. The sight of his England side conceding so soon into this World Cup qualifier and then daring to play as badly as they did in response was the stuff of nightmares for the national coach. It was an anxious expression he wore when he returned to his seat alongside Steve Holland after a spell in the technical area. A look of utter helplessness.

England were so poor one almost felt the need to fire off an apology to Southampton for suggesting in yesterday’s Sportsmail that they were the national team’s Premier League equivalent.

But when Southgate meets with his players this morning to reflect on their efforts against Slovakia, he is sure to focus on the fact that they did possess enough quality and composure to not only dig themselves out of trouble but secure a win that takes them to within touching distance of next summer’s World Cup.

Southgate conceded on the eve of this game that his side were nowhere near as good as Spain and that certainly remains the case. For a start they allowed Slovakia to dominate possession for the majority of the first half in an alarming manner.

In the end, however, they showed what Southgate referred to as ‘resilience’ and ‘maturity’, with Marcus Rashford’s performance a perfect encapsulation of those qualities given the extremes of his particular evening.

Southgate is sure to take great pleasure from the youngster’s display, not least because his contribution ultimately vindicated the decision to start with the Manchester United forward at Raheem Sterling’s expense.

But England very much remain a work in progress and one specific area of concern has to be a midfield lacking the creativity of previous England sides. While Dier and Jordan Henderson boast a degree of competency and solidity, England have been at their best in more recent years when players of the quality of Paul Gascoigne, Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have operated in those central areas. Southgate needs to look at that, perhaps examining the option of Dele Alli in a deeper role so he can get on the ball sooner.

There are still some obvious shortcomings. Never mind the friendlies with France, Germany and Spain that represented a lesson in the finer arts of football.

Southgate’s England have been exposed all too often by the better teams in Group F, those draws away to Slovenia and Scotland a measure of their frailty and an indicator of how difficult it has been to move on from that loss to Iceland at Euro 2016.

England’s manager considers it unfair to expect an overnight transformation. He is not the Messiah he tells us.

Right now, however, signs of a team emerging that can come into a game of this magnitude and seize the initiative is the kind of step forward that needs to be made.

If the opening 45 minutes against Malta was mediocre last Friday, the first half here was utterly abject.

Indeed the only positive was the sheer will of certain individuals to rescue a desperate situation, with Harry Kane chief among those pressing hard for that all-important goal. Credit to the Tottenham striker for securing the corner that led to Dier’s rather fortuitous goal.

This morning Southgate will no doubt draw on the obvious positives of last night and use them to build some much-needed confidence in this squad. In time Southgate might be able to look back on this game as a turning point in the fortunes of this generation of international players.

England are not Spain, and as we saw in June they are not France either. But they had become a team no longer capable of even reaching the stage of a major tournament where they might meet opposition of such quality.

Southgate will hope this was a sign of genuine improvement. A sign, at last, of progress.