Passing the ball around our penalty area never caused a problem for us.

Carsh - Agreed, but possibly because his form form did drop a bit toward the end of the season.

And yes Airsy I am excited for the fixture lists coming out. Can start planning some away trips.

Spit Jobi McAnuff is another one on World Cup punditry

TomSW16 I heard that there are always two fourth officials if one is female as they need someone to go to the toilet with.

Why was Mark Guehi who is our best defender not playing?

We did look quite jittery doing the tippy tappy in our own six yard box last night especially as Croatia were content to press that far forwards. Our first touches in those moments were second rate as well and I do wonder whether this is something they’ll try to avoid if we find ourselves up against better quality oppo later in the tournament.

Why are there now 5 match officials? There were 2 female officials on the side last nught who seemed to be pairing up to deal with the subsitution and timer display board

Anyway, more importantly. Anyone else excited for fixture release day this time next week?

Hash - I was screaming at the telly last night because of it!

To my mind, the deeper you play your tippy-tappy means that you draw your opponent deeper into your half allowing space in behind them with more space to run into and less danger of being caught offside when you go forward

Exactly Hash, only a matter of time before it costs a goal .

Spit, i don't really understand football tactics / strategy beyond the absolute basics of what a formation is. I would love someone who understands these things to explain why teams (it isn't just England to be fair) play tippy tappy passing in their own penalty area. To my mind it seems to be asking for trouble. I mean I can understand doing it in midfield or even in the final third but in your own penalty area? Why? What possible reason?

A Bank Holiday will unfortunately not be necessary but it definitely would happen. A Prime Minister (old or new) would grab at the opportunity for the feel good factor.

Swig, because its the Barnett formula that says so...

Let's just be happy we had a good entertaining win in a first match for a change.not often im excited to watch the next game!

Sorry its a Facebook link but things are moving quickly now for Newport IW FC [Link]

Why the UK? It should just be England. But it won't happen even if we do win the WC as it's not "acceptable" to celebrate anything English these days.

Alan, indeed it's a marathon not a sprint

The problem England have, is almost entirely, they start playing Cack and get better (or better results) as they go on. After yesterday, they've either shot their bolt early, or hopefully they are going to be majestic finalists

Thanks Trigs! When playing those interactive predictor games I have variously had England playing Norway, Senegal and others in R2. Guess we just have to wait and see.

It’s very difficult to track it Hash. Because of the increased number of 3rd placed teams going through and there being a draw for the Round of 32 for those teams in terms of futures it’s complicated/impossible to predict. To try and plan out a curry with mates but avoid picking a potential England fixture I’ve been using Google Gemini it’s pretty good if you give it a match number (as per the WC schedule) and say “who’s likely to be in Match 86?” it gives you a decent overview of who could be/who’s likely to be in it.

As we are entering the second games now it will hopefully start to get more interesting as group positions, who plays who in the next round etc starts to take shape. I don't totally understand how it works if I am honest

Australia winning leaves my accumulator bet dead in the water. Apart from them, the 11 other teams I bet on to come bottom of each group are mostly in that position.

I thought Ghana looked exciting going forwards at times last night. England v Ghana for top spot in the group?