TERRY VENABLES ENGLAND CAREER

* Captain

477: v Denmark, Wembley, 3.4.94. England won 1-0
Seaman      Parker      Le Saux      Ince (Le Tissier)      Adams      Pallister      Platt*1     Gascoigne (Batty)      Shearer      Beardsley      Anderton

Terry Venables gets off to a winning start as England manager against a depleted Denmark team. A new look team formation and a recall for Peter Beardsley made sure of a winning if not spectacular start. The winning goal as so often before came from captain David Platt.

England best performance yet under Terry Venables saw them totally outplay a very poor Greek team, with Spurs Darren Anderton particularly impressing on the right wing and also scoring his first goal for the national team. Gascoigne looked like his old self and Newcastle's Peter Beardsley scored his first goal since being recalled to international football.

The less said about this game the better, as two typically styled English teams cancelled each other out for much of the game. Venables like Graham Taylor before him found the Norwegian defence a tough nut to crack. At the end a sparse Wembley crowd let their feelings show.

An unconvincing victory for England against a poor American team, the one bright spot was the performance of two goal Alan Shearer. Venables still looking for a settled formation this time trying out the Christmas tree formation. England's total domination was barely rewarded with the two-goal scoreline. The USA team looked tired from their brave efforts in the summer world cup.

481: v Romania, Wembley, 10.12.94. England drew 1-1
Seaman      Jones (Pearce)      Adams*      Pallister      Le Saux      Lee1 (Wise)       Ince      Barnes      Le Tissier      Wright (Sheringham)      Shearer

The Romanian team on a high from USA 94 came to Wembley and gave the England team a footballing lesson on this cold December evening. Their passing and all round control was far better than Venables team who struggled to cope for long parts of the match. A debut goal from Newcastle's Robert Lee was just enough to save his managers unbeaten run, but the fans who bothered to turn up will be less than pleased with what they saw on the night.

482: v Nigeria, Wembley, 16.11.94. England won 1-0
Flowers      Jones      Howey      Ruddock      Le Saux      Wise      Lee (McManaman)     Platt*1      Barnes      Beardsley (Le Tissier)      Shearer (Sheringham)

Another poor performance from England who were lucky to scrape to this narrow victory, a single goal from captain David Platt who once again was Venables savour against a far more skilful Nigerian team who can count themselves very unlucky not to have won this match. A new look defensive partnership of Ruddock and Howey coped pretty well with the Nigerian forward line, and Shearer and Beardsley seemed to work well enough together upfront.

England's first game under Venable's to be played away ended in disgrace as a number of English "fans" caused crowd trouble after 27 minutes causing the referee to abandon the match. The FA decided to award caps for the match although the 1-0 scoreline would not stand in the records. The Irish FA also awarded caps and allowed David Kelly to keep the goal on his record.

After the poor performance against Romania, Venables was looking for something better from his players, and the reaction from the sparse crowd at full time tells the whole story. This was probably the poorest team effort since Venables took over and the game petered out to a dreadfully boring nil all draw.

The summer tournament "The Umbro Cup" kicked off with England taking on Japan at Wembley, and if Venables thought what had gone on in his previous games was bad he was in for a surprise here. A totally disjointed England stumbled to a lucky victory against a plucky Japan team who will count themselves very unlucky to leave Wembley defeated.

In the second match the venue was moved away from the capital for the first time in many years against a Swedish team fresh from there third place in the world cup but struggling to qualify for euro 96. And Terry Venables was pulling his hair out when his team found themselves 3-1 down early in the second half, but must have been lifted when they scored twice in the last two minutes from Platt and Anderton to hold on to a undeserved draw. Also Sheringham finally got of the mark at international level with Englands first goal. This was also the first time England had conceded three goals at home for over twenty years.

The final match of the cup was against World Champions Brazil, and England's first half performance was by far their best so far under Venables reign. They took the lead early on with a wonderful volley by Le Saux and must have gone in at half time pretty pleased, but in the second half it was the same old story, unorganised and disjointed in defence and midfield Brazil ran riot and England were lucky to only lose 3-1. If the manager has learned anything from this tournament it surely is that there is still a lot of work to be done if his team are to do anything of significance in the summer of 96.

This was not a bad performance by England who had plenty of time on the ball as the Colombians sat of and let Venables team come on to them. There were few chances for either teams to score and even fewer fans bothered to turn up at Wembley. The match will always be remembered for Rene Higuta's 'scorpian' save from Redknapp's shot.

Anyone watching this game could have been forgiven for having feelings of "deja vu" as it was almost a carbon copy of the match between these two sides that also ended scoreless in May 1994. England never looked like they were going to score and Shearer who has not scored now for eight matches was rationed to only one shot at goal. Some good saves from Seaman in the English goal kept his team in a match that almost had the spectators falling asleep. Nottingham Forest's Steve Stone came on as a second half substitute to gain his first international cap in a game that was better left forgotten.

The best performance by England for a long time saw them to a comfortable win against fellow Euro 96 qualifiers Switzerland. Steve Stone who came on for Redknapp after only 6 minutes made his mark from the start and looked very impressive on the right wing. Switzerland stunned England by taking the lead which lasted for only 4 minutes when Pearce scored with a blistering shot from 30 yards. In the second half England took control and goals from Sheringham and Stone sealed a good victory that would give Venables a lot of heart for the forthcoming championships.

Fellow Euro 96 qualifiers Portugal came to Wembley on a cold December evening and showed England what they will have to face next summer. Their passing was slick and there all-round play excellent, England played ok and managed to contain the Portuguese for most of the match. Steve Stone once again caught the eye and gave his team the lead with a rasping drive from outside the box just before half time. Portugal drew equal just after the break and both sides had a few chances late in the game with England substitute Southgate heading against the crossbar on his debut. Manager Terry Venables would have been quiet happy with the result and how his team played.

A wonderful first half performance was ruined by an inept second half display, an early Ferdinand goal on his return to the team gave England the perfect start and they should have been three or four up by half time. Bulgaria were denied a draw when they had a last minute goal disallowed for hand ball. Overall Venables would have been happy with his teams display, with time running out before the European finals.

Croatia came to wembley and spoiled the game with some very defensive tactics, and only some poor finishing from Sheringham and Robbie Fowler on his full England debut cost England the result they needed just weeks before Euro 96.

In their last game at Wembley before the European finals England fumbled to a victory against a very poor and negative Hungary team. Darren Anderton scored two on his return and captain David Platt kept up his excellent goal scoring record with the third. Debuts were given to Spurs Ian Walker and Sol Campbell, and Terry Venables would have been quiet happy with this victory.

The first international ever between these two teams, and also the first game of England's warm-up tour before Euro 96 ended with England running out comfortable winners which meant the first time his team has won two games in a row under Terry Venables. The game itself was notable for the inclusion of the Neville brothers, the first time siblings have represented England since the Charlton's in the 60's and 70's, and also a first cap for Aston Villa's Ehiogu. Two goals from Barmby and a third from Gascoigne were the goal scorers.

Having watched England play badly over the last fifteen years i can honestly say that this was the biggest pile of horse shit it has ever been my great displeasure to witness. A totally inept England team devoid of any spirit or imagination made very hard work of beating a bunch of has-beens in their late thirty's.

The English public had waited thirty years for a major footballing tournament to reach these shores, and what a massive disappointment it all was. A capacity crowd turned up at wembley to create a fabulous reception for the two teams who opened up Euro 96, England started well and created some good chances before Shearer scored his first goal at international level for over two years, but instead of building on this lead the team just fell apart at the seams and looked really jaded in the second half. Not really the start to the championship that Venables would have wanted.

The first time these two countries had met in seven years, and the first time they had met in a proper competition. The first half was awful in what was a typical British style game. Whatever Terry Venables said to his players at half time seemed to work as they took the lead through Shearer with his second goal of the tournament. The whole game changed in the space of two second half minutes when Seaman saved a penalty from McAllister and shortly after Paul Gascoigne scored a superb solo goal to tie the game up.

By far the best England performance for many years made sure of a quarter final place. Holland were never in the match as England destroyed them with Shearer and Sheringham each scoring twice, Holland only made sure of qualification by scoring a late goal thus knocking out Scotland in the process. England must now believe they can go all the way in Euro 96.

This Euro 96 quarter-final never lived up to expectations with Spain having the best of the first half and England never living up to the promise shown against Holland. Spain should have won it in normal time, but for some fine saves from Seaman. The game went to sudden death but still the deadlock was not broken, and the match went to penalties which England won 4-2, with Shearer, Platt, Pearce, and Gascoigne the scorers. Terry Venables would have been happy with his teams performance. England's Euro 96 dream is still alive.

 

England		Spain
Shearer		Hierro
Platt		Amor
Pearce		Belsue
Gascoigne		Nadal

The nightmare of the penalty shoot out came back to haunt England as just like in 1990 Germany came out on top of the shoot-out. The atmosphere in Wembley before kick-off was superb  and Terry Venables side started well and Alan Shearer scored after 3 minutes to send the crowd wild. The lead was held for 15 minutes before Stefan Kuntz equalised. The game went to sudden death extra time with Steve McManaman hitting a post and Gazza inches away from sliding home the winner. Then the dreaded penalties with all five players from each side scoring, the Gareth Southgate missed allowing Moller to send Germant through.

England		Germany
Shearer		Hassler
Platt		Strunz
Pearce		Reuter
Gascoigne		Ziege
Sheringham		Kuntz
Southgate		Moller