OLIVER HOLT: GARETH BRINGS PRIDE TO HIS LIONS
A FEW minutes before kick-off, just before the England caretaker manager left the home dressing room with his team, the loudspeaker system at Wembley played an old favourite.
‘Three Lions on a shirt’ blared out around the stadium and 20 years in the life of Gareth Southgate fell away to a time when he was walking out here in a kit, not a three-piece suit.
Southgate was a member of Terry Venables’ side at Euro 96, the last time there was real excitement or genuine optimism about England’s chances of winning a tournament.
The last time, too, that we had a manager who had real conviction about the way he wanted to play and who was capable of carrying the players along with him.
We all know how that tournament ended for Southgate, of course — with a missed penalty against Germany and a pizza advert.
Still, he was part of it. He represents a link to it, a link to the last time England appeared in the semifinals of a major tournament.
There have been 20 more years of hurt since then and now it has fallen to him to try to end it. It was always going to be hard to read too much into this victory in the first of the four matches he has been given to prove himself. But as Sam Allardyce found out to his cost, the first task of an England manager is to avoid banana skins that could leave you flat on your back and struggling for dignity. So at least Southgate stepped over this one.
He must have been getting a little nervous when 28 minutes had elapsed and still England had failed to score against opponents who shipped five goals at home to Scotland in their only previous Group F qualifier and who are among the whipping boys of world football.
The bookies favoured a winning margin of five or six and the crowd was starting to grow fitful.
But then Jordan Henderson, England’s outstanding player, burst forward from midfield and curled a cross into the box. Daniel Sturridge met it with his head about 12 yards out and guided it superbly beyond the dive of Malta goalkeeper Andrew Hogg.
Southgate (right) who had been prowling the touchline, punched the air with delight. And relief.
What is already clear is that Southgate does at least enjoy a reasonable amount of public goodwill. There is an acceptance, even among the players, that a combination of the exit to Iceland at Euro 2016 and the misadventures of Allardyce have combined to make England an international laughing stock.
As a first step to a return to limited respectability, Southgate offers the minimum requirements of authority and decency.
It is how much more he can offer that is the key to whether he will get the job on a full-time basis.
Forget the idea about him being too nice to succeed as a boss. His growing impatience with being asked that question suggests that if he gets it much more, we may quickly find out that he can be forthright when he needs to be.
The idea that he is somehow weak because he is polite and courteous is a joke. Southgate has plenty of steel about him. Graeme le Saux will tell you how difficult it is to be intelligent and well-spoken and survive in a football dressing room. He and Southgate managed it and enjoyed plenty of success along the way.
Southgate has no magic wand to wave. He does not bring a cult of personality with him as, say, Jose Mourinho would. He does not bring the promise of an aggressive pressing game as Jurgen Klopp would. But he started to enjoy more success as the England Under 21s boss and there is a sense that he is growing as a manager.
Could he have done things differently against Malta? Well, it was hard to see what was to be gained by playing Wayne Rooney in central midfield. Rooney’s ability in that position was never going to be tested against Malta but even against the minnows, he did not look entirely comfortable. His future is not there.
It is reasonable for Southgate to want to persist with him because he still has much to offer but it would have made more sense to play him as a No10. If you are going to commit to Rooney and trust his talent, then maybe you have to sacrifice your preferred system.
We will learn more in the away game against Slovenia on Tuesday. To win 2-0 against Malta felt like a below-par score but it was not particularly important. It could and should have been more.
Jesse Lingard, who was handed his debut from the start, missed a series of chances and Dele Alli, who had scored the second goal, lifted a late chance over the bar from a few yards out when it seemed easier to score.
In many ways, though, the score was not important. Even against Malta. The football was never going to be scintillating against a team that got every man behind the ball. What mattered was the win.
After the last few months, England are taking baby steps again. Let us not forget that the previous manager lasted just 67 days in the job. More than anything, we need some calmness and continuity. Southgate brings that and the hope is that the FA will put the turmoil that has enveloped the national team behind them and offer him the job full-time. It is important — on a number of different levels — for the England manager to be English and Southgate is the best option we have. To hand him the job would be to encourage other English coaches that there is a path- way to the England job for them, not the kind of roadblock that exists at the top of the Premier League.
It would be wrong to expect too much. Let’s be honest about our prospects for once. Whoever is in charge, England do not have the talent to match Spain, Germany, France or Italy in tournament football. Southgate is not an alchemist but he can start to point England in the right direction again.
Last night at least restored a little order to the team. It showed there was life after Allardyce. It drew a line under the whole sorry Allardyce affair. It started the process of allowing us to forget about that. The humiliation of that has not been banished yet but at least England won.
After Allardyce, after Iceland, we are learning that we really ought not to take anything for granted any more.