Hodgson's Messiah

Today's the day that Ricky Lambert went from being the object of supreme scorn and derision for tabloid hacks, motormouth pundits and clueless fans, to being the saviour destined to win England the World Cup in the eyes of exactly the same people, all in the space of about twenty minutes. Sometimes I do wish we could just ship these gurning simpletons off to another country to continue their mindless-chunterings-dressed-up-as-debate. Tajikistan are in need of a bit of support, and they're not too fussy; can we relocate TalkSport headquarters to Dushanbe and get their listeners to concentrate their limited attention span on Mukhsin Mukhamadiev's barmy army instead?

I was glad to see Lambert get the winner on his debut (though Scotland fully deserved a result for having pushed an initially complacent England the distance). The Southampton man's impact just underlines a point that most have us have known for years, but which successive England bosses have stubbornly ignored; picking the most talented individuals for each position on the pitch often just doesn't work. If the prima donnas don't care enough, they need someone alongside them for whom wearing the shirt is an honour - that bloke may not be the top of his class in ability, but his attitude and dedication will win over the fans and create opportunities that the superstars will hopefully put away.

Lambert was never going to be a useless addition to the squad, but nor will he be our World Cup saviour. He's just an honest player doing his best, and the challenge for Roy is to work out how we can find more like him, and then team them up for maximum effect with the prodigal prodigies we've been lumbered with this last decade.