Richard Sutcliffe: England at home but – just like McClaren – they are far from dry

Ten countries have booked their place in Brazil, with Holland and Italy becoming the first from Europe to do so last month.

Germany, Switzerland and Russia look certain to follow suit later this week.

Further afield, Argentina were the first South American nation to qualify and should soon be joined by Colombia and Uruguay. The others already planning for next summer in the safe knowledge they will be involved are the USA, Costa Rica, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Iran and the hosts.

As for England, the task is simple. Or, at least, it sounds simple.

Take six points from the home qualifiers with Montenegro and Poland and a place at next year’s finals in Brazil will be secure.

Qualification is, therefore, England’s to throw away. But then that was the case when qualifying got under way in a group where the next highest ranked nation by FIFA was Ukraine in a less than impressive 45th place.

Trailing behind the Ukrainians were Montenegro (ranked 50th) and Poland (54th), while San Marino were ranked the joint worst team in world football alongside Montsterrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Even allowing for the foibles of a ranking system that, at the time, ludicrously suggested England were the third best team on the planet, this was clearly no ‘group of death’.

This lack of apparent quality in the opposition is why England’s campaign has been so underwhelming. Roy Hodgson’s men have not so much lit up their group as stumbled around in the dark.

True, the Three Lions are yet to taste defeat. But, equally, we are also yet to beat anyone but the hapless San Marino or Moldova, ranked – kindly, it seems – 137th by FIFA at the start of last season.

There have been some battling displays along the way, none more so than last month’s goalless draw in Ukraine.

England also ground out a point against Poland in Warsaw, a feat not to be sneezed at considering the unsettling effect of the game taking place 24 hours later than planned due to a waterlogged pitch.

Those two creditable results aside, however, there has been very little to write home about when it comes to the manner in which Hodgson’s men have tackled the 2014 qualifiers.

A safety first attitude that brings largely joyless performances when it really matters have dominated and it is only because of results elsewhere – both Ukraine and Poland failing to win in Moldova, for instance – that England find themselves top of the group with two games to play.

Despite that, there does seem to be a widespread assumption that things are going to fall into place over the coming eight days.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why as England’s stumbles have provided a far from convincing case that it really is going to suddenly become all right on the night when Montenegro and Poland come to town.

The true believers point to the fact the two games are on home soil, almost as if this is some kind of guaranteed ‘get out of jail’ card to be played in times of trouble.

Well, quite frankly, it is not. Anyone who thinks otherwise need surely look no further back than 2007 and Croatia’s visit for the final game of a qualifying campaign that had seen England look every bit as unconvincing as this time around.

Just as with the fight for a place at the 2014 World Cup finals, the Three Lions had used their standing as the top seed in the group to ensure the final qualifier would be played at Wembley.

Just a point was required against a side who had already qualified for Euro 2008 but, on a night when Steve McClaren provided Fleet Street’s headline writers with an open goal by seeking refuge from the rain under a brolly, Croatia ran out 3-2 winners.

Hodgson’s England have looked no more impressive at the national stadium than their predecessors of six years ago.

Sure, Brazil were beaten earlier this year in an entertaining friendly, but the pressure was off that night.

That will not be the case either on Friday or the following Tuesday. Worse still, the only truly competitive fixture the Three Lions have played under Hodgson at Wembley was Ukraine’s visit in September last year.

England were truly abject that night, only rescuing a point from a 1-1 draw thanks to an 87th-minute penalty from Frank Lampard.

In the following morning’s Yorkshire Post, I wrote: “What the late equaliser could not do was paper over the cracks of a display that went a long way to banishing much of the feel good factor that had filled London’s streets the previous afternoon when hundreds of thousands of sports fans had turned out to salute Team GB’s medal winners.

“Mostly awful both with and without the ball, England could have had few complaints had Ukraine exacted revenge for their Euro 2012 defeat 84 days earlier in Donetsk.”

Performances since then have done little to suggest much has changed, while injury and loss of form are a further worry going into Friday’s meeting with Montenegro.

The reaction in the following day’s national media to Joe Hart’s performance against Bayern Munich may have been a tad over the top, but there is little doubt that the Manchester City goalkeeper is going through a bad patch, as he proved against Scotland in August.

Hodgson insists Hart, left, will, barring injury, start both qualifiers, but with Theo Walcott and Glen Johnson missing through injury, England suddenly look vulnerable.

It promises to be a fascinating and nerve-shredding finale.

And another thing...

YORKSHIRE’S 150th year may not have ended as we had all hoped with silverware residing at Headingley, but 2013 has still been a summer to savour for those who see the County Championship as the beginning and end of a cricket season.

Runners-up spot behind a rampant Durham represented a tremendous effort by Andrew Gale’s men and there were plenty of moments to treasure.

Ten-wicket wins on the road over Nottinghamshire and Middlesex stood out, particularly the latter where I was fortunate enough to see both Alex Lees and Gale hit splendid hundreds in testing conditions at Lord’s.

The captain provided another big highlight with a stunning double hundred at Scarborough, as did Jack Brooks – who, along with Liam Plunkett, transformed an attack that in 2012 rarely looked capable of taking the required 20 wickets – when he helped rout Derbyshire at Headingley.

All in all, therefore, plenty to keep Yorkshire’s members warm through the winter months, even if a shocking 16 defeats in 22 outings of Twenty20 or YB40 action did leave a slightly sour taste in the mouths of those who shelled out good money expecting to watch a competitive team.