Just no point to bore draw

In his more familiar central role the Manchester United striker would almost certainly have taken one of the chances that a nervous Shaun Wright-Phillips missed.

However, it says much for Wright-Phillips's contribution on the flank that he got into positions to miss chances. He certainly added to his football education last night and must now realise that the ability to run fast is not in itself enough at international level. You must also be able to think quickly. In the first 20 minutes of a listless friendly match he was caught in possession three or four times. That could have been costly in a more important game.

Eriksson chose a 4-3-3 line-up partly to accommodate Wright-Phillips and David Beckham in the same team.

Although Beckham was always busy on the right of a midfield three you felt that he would have been better employed channelling his energy on the right wing where his ability to hit early crosses has been so critical in the past. Wright-Phillips didn't do enough in my opinion to qualify automatically for a place in the approaching World Cup ties. But he did enough to show that he's a player for the future, especially as Beckham's legs will not carry him up and down the right flank for too much longer. Eriksson was pleased that this England performance, however stilted, was an improvement on the 1-0 defeat in Spain in November. "We should have scored in the first half," he said. "For a friendly game I thought it was good quality. As far as the system was concerned at least we now know that we can play that way if we want to.

"We know it worked against Holland, but how we'll play against Northern Ireland I'm not yet sure."

Marco van Basten, the Dutch coach, thought the way England played was "curious" yet " understandable".

He said: "I expected lots of problems because of the strength of England's forwards and midfield players. But we did our homework well and England didn't create a lot. I was very satisfied with our defensive performance."

What else do we know? Very little that's new I suspect. Wes Brown and Jamie Carragher played well together in the heart of the defence and Crystal Palace's inform goalscorer Andy Johnson was given his first brief taste of international football - wide on the right as a substitute for Wright-Phillips.

He played for just 30 minutes and it was a shame for him that he didn't get the chance to play his familiar role as a central striker. "I didn't want to change the formation and I didn't want to take off Michael Owen, because he hasn't been playing much football lately," explained the England coach. "Andy was very happy to get his chance. I know he normally plays as a centre forward and I know what he can do."

Middlesbrough's Stewart Downing, a natural left winger, was brought on to replace Rooney but had few opportunities to impress in a match that was merely the latest in a catalogue of indifferent friendly performances.

This was England's 23rd friendly under Eriksson and they've won just eight of them. A few years ago Wembley fans wouldn't have tolerated such undistinguished football and some of the booing at the end of the game suggested that the Villa Park fans were not happy with what they had paid to see. I've seen crowds of less than 20,000 at Wembley at times when fans were clearly disenchanted. The Football Association are fortunate at the moment because the rebuilding of Wembley has allowed them to capitalise on the novelty of taking England around the provinces.

Quite frankly I'd rather sacrifice a meaningless midweek friendly and replace it with a full Premiership programme if it ensured the FA Cup Final could take place on the traditional Saturday afternoon.