It feels like we say this every time England play a competitive match these days but tonight is ‘make or break’ for Steve McClaren.

Although defeat in Israel would not mathematically rule England out of next summer’s European Cup, it would make the qualification process harder than it ever should have been allowed to become.

And for Steve, defeat would probably spell the end of his brief, yet troubled, reign as England head coach.

The media are already clamouring for his head after a string of lacklustre results and another defeat against the relative minnows of Israel would probably be the final straw.

However, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here.

No matter how incompetent a manager McClaren really is – and I will reserve judgment on that for now – I would still suggest he has enough ability to navigate England past Israel.

At the end of the day, although they have one or two decent players, for the most part, Israel’s first team is nothing to get excited about. Or even mildly titillated about, for that matter.

England, on the other hand, have a team which boasts a few world class players with points to prove. Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry – a bunch that can’t afford to roll over and die too easily after the debacle that was last summer’s World Cup.

As I said, the jury is still out on McClaren as far as I am concerned but they could come back in with a verdict this evening.

Any sort of win against Israel followed by a comfortable one against Andorra on Wednesday and it will probably be enough to buy McClaren breathing space to take him to next summer’s tournament.

Anything less and it could well be time to send off another CV to the Football Association…

Congratulations, Liverpool

I would like to take this opportunity to offer hearty congratulations to Liverpool – not for anything they have done on the pitch, but rather something they did off it.

Edward, a good friend of mine, recently flew to England to watch the Liverpool vs Barcelona game at Anfield confident in the knowledge that he had booked tickets online from a reputable agency.

However, when he arrived in Liverpool he received a call from the booking company saying they were sorry but their agent had let them down and the tickets were not going to happen.

Although their money – a rather hefty sum I might add – was refunded it still left Ed in the rather unpleasant position of being in Liverpool purposely to watch a game for which he no longer had tickets.

Less intrepid football fans would have probably given up at this point. Or maybe bought some black market tickets for a million pounds each. But us Maltese are made of shrewder stuff than that.

With nothing to lose and armed with lots of honest documentation the three fans headed to Anfield to explain their position and to ask if there was any way possible of getting in to watch the game. Pretty please.

And, full credit to the Anfield backroom team, they only went and found them seats to a game that had been sold out for weeks. Not just any seats either, ones that had been reserved for a television crew and which were, therefore, pretty darned good. And at face value too.

With so much money washing around the Premiership these days it’s not often you hear of a club finding time for fans in distress.

So top marks to the Liverpool chaps. Nice one.

Sheffield United

Now a lot of you, including my so-called family and friends, enjoy taking the Mickey out of me for supporting Sheffield United.

Even though we are now (for a while at least) Premier League, there are those who still enjoy pointing out that I am in a vast minority in Malta. And that is true. It doesn’t, however, mean I am alone. Here’s some proof.

“Enjoyed your article on Saturday as I do with all your articles on Wednesdays and Saturdays. However, I cannot believe you forgot to mention that the most likely scenario of 2018 being that Sheffield United, having survived a somewhat perilous return to the top flight in 2007, then went on over the next decade never to finish out of the top six, win the FA cup twice, the League Cup three times and runners up in the Champions League on no less than two occasions.

“In 2018, at the inauguration of the new 100,000-seater Henderson’s Relish Stadium, the new joint mega rich owners – the celebrated Hollywood actor Sean Bean and rock star Joe Elliott – reluctantly accepted the resignation of Sir Neil Warnock. His final stupendous season saw United win the title, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Champions League.

“Apparently Old Trafford is known as the theatre of dreams. As a life long blade supporter the only real theatre of dreams is Bramall Lane…” Dave Creek, Gzira.

There you have it – final proof of two very important things. One, I am not alone in supporting Sheffield United on Malta. Two, a vivid imagination and the ability to dream is crucially important when you are a Blade…

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