You could be forgiven for thinking we had been transported back in time and were witnessing an England performance under Sven Goran Eriksson as Steve McClarens side huffed and puffed their way to a disappointing 0-0 draw against Macedonia. The performance in the first fourty-five minutes was among the poorest I have seen. The one half chance in that time fell to Frank Lampard who had is close range effort saved.

A slight improvement in the second half produced more chances with Steven Gerrard hitting the crossbar with a rasping effort after some good work by Shaun Wright-Phillips and Gary Neville really should have scored his first international goal after the keeper parried a Peter Crouch header into his path but the Manchester United defender blasted over.

England repeatedly were sloppy in possession and created little out wide against a well organised Macedonia. A match to forget.

Steve McClaren admitted his England team had received a "reality check" after they had struggled to a goalless draw against Macedonia in the European Championship qualifier at Old Trafford.

He said: "Macedonia played very well but we have to be better than that. We've had a reality check.

"Now we must show character and resilience against Croatia. You could see in the faces of the players after the game that they want to put it right.

"We have got one disappointed dressing room because we did not perform to our normal standards. We expect to win games against Macedonia and we at least expect to score.

"We've expected the plaudits when we have had three wins but that was a below-par performance and we have to bounce back on Wednesday."

McClaren admitted that losing Gerrard, who hit the Macedonia crossbar with a thunderous late drive and had already been booked in the 1-0 away win in Skopje, was "a big blow."

"I thought the yellow card was very harsh," said McClaren. "It was an innocuous challenge. It warranted a free-kick without the show of the card."