EYES ON Roy’s Lions ready to land knockout blow

ROY HODGSON last night insisted he and his England players have been tougher on themselves than their critics.

The Three Lions boss said they had been “brutal” in airing their shortcomings so far in France.

Hodgson claimed they had not pulled any punches when assessing just how poor they have been at putting away the host of chances created in their three group games.

And with Iceland set to park the bus in tonight’s last-16 clash in Nice, Hodgson and skipper Wayne Rooney are well aware they cannot afford to be so wasteful.

And they have spelt that out in no uncertain terms.

Defeat against the tournament minnows would ensure an end to Hodgson’s four-and-a-half-year reign – and maintain an appalling record of England never having won a knockout game on foreign soil at the Euros.

“It’s all about winning or losing and staying in or going out,” said Hodgson. “And we have been very brutal with ourselves in that respect and we have a very brutal focus. We made it very clear amongst ourselves that it doesn’t matter that we – in our eyes – are playing well.

“All that matters is that we haven’t won, and when you don’t win, you get criticised – perhaps rightly so because there’s always a reason why you haven’t won.

“I’ve been very keen to point out to the players that we’ve got to make certain we turn what we think is domination in some games or imposing our game onto opponents into wins.

“Because if we don’t, then it’s not going to be good enough and we’re going to be disappointed because we think we have quite a good team and we think we play good football.

“Monday night is the ultimate test because if we don’t win that’s the end for us.”

England have had 65 attempts on goal in their draws with Russia and Slovakia and victory over Wales, 15 of them on target and just three resulting in goals.

“It’s a knockout now and we haven’t got time to be wasteful with any more chances,” said Rooney.

“We’ll have to move the ball quicker and make them run, then hope the gaps will be there and we can take advantage of the chances when they come.” Starsport understands