WHAT a week for English football. First, England's Under-21s qualify for the European Championship play-offs in front of a full house at Ewood then Super Sven's men book their place at next summer's World Cup -- does life get any better than that?

But I have to say, I've been disappointed to say the least by the reaction of some of the national Press to Saturday's nervy 2-2 draw with Greece at Old Trafford.

Barely a month ago, those very same hacks were predicting England were ready to conquer the Universe after the 5-1 mauling of Germany in Munich.

Michael Owen may have been the destroyer-in-chief, but the likes of Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole were suddenly elevated to world-beaters overnight by a gaggle of pressmen who spoke as if next summer's World Cup was already in the bag.

Now, four weeks on and one poor performance later and some of those very same scribes are talking as if major surgery is required for England to stand a chance in Japan.

So is it possible for a player to become bad overnight or did they perhaps get carried away by one good result in the first place?

I'll be the first to admit, Saturday's performance against the Greeks was arguably the worst 90 minutes I've ever seen by an England team in all the years I've been watching football.

Gerrard would have struggled to pass a fiver over a Southport bar never mind pass a ball to a team-mate.

Scholes disappeared into the black hole he likes to fill behind the front two.

And cow's backsides and banjos spring to mind when analysing the performance of Robbie Fowler.

But shouldn't we have expected a display like that?

Looking back through history, how many times has a team crawled over the finishing line when they've been chasing a title or promotion?

It might be my memory playing tricks, but I don't remember Rovers playing like Brazil in the closing weeks of the Premiership-winning season with Manchester United breathing down their necks.

It's only human nature that people suddenly begin to feel the pressure when the heat is on and that's exactly what happened to the men wearing the three lions -- except for David Beckham.

Ashley Cole is still a promising young player who can go on to win a 100 caps if he works on his defending.

Paul Scholes is still one of the best goal-scoring midfielders in World football despite one bad performance.

And Gerrard has the World at his feet providing he can stay out of the pub.

All we need now is for Duffer to defect and solve our problems on the left-hand side of midfield.

Then we can truly say we've got a genuine chance of glory next summer.