Match ticket: £37-50
Megabus (Manchester-London & London-Sheffield): £13-50
Train ticket single (Marylebone-Wembley Stadium): £5
Tea: £2
Programme: £6
Pies, pasties and other provisions: £4-27
Total: £68-27
My strange and sometimes unexplainable love of the England national team continues to draw me back to Wembley, even for low-key matches against opposition like San Marino. I’d been there 2 years ago (almost to the day), when England had thrashed them 5-0 in a World Cup qualifier, and wanted to get to this one, as it would be the last realistic Autumn fixture I could do. That, coupled with the fact that this was our first home qualifier, made this an attractive proposition despite the quality of the opposition. Unfortunately, I’d been disorganised with this, so ended up with a slightly more expensive ticket than usual. On a positive note, I kept my costs down with cheap bus travel down from Manchester and then back up to Sheffield. I’m pretty pleased that I kept the costs of the day below £70, and now think there is a lot to be said for having a budget for these bigger games.
I arrived at the stadium 15 minutes before kick-off, and paid £2 for a cuppa, before finding my seat in the lower tier. As it happened, almost all of Level 5 in the upper tier had been closed off, bar a cluster of supporters directly behind me taking up maybe a quarter to 20% of the tier. There were admittedly smatterings of empty seats in my section, and it said a lot that many people were able to sit where they liked without causing too many problems. The tone for this game had already been set by a lot of whinging in the press about the pointlessness of walkover games against weaker teams. The main topic of conversation behind me was whether England would get 6 as one chap had placed a bet on this. I can’t recall many similar occasions when it is almost a certainty for us to get so many.
England were set out in a slightly different formation to usual. The retirement of Gerrard has left a massive gulf in the midfield, so Hodgson is exploring different options with who should sit in front of the defence (at the base of the diamond). In this case, we had Milner playing this role, with Wilshere and Henderson pushing forward either side of him, and Sterling through the middle behind the front two. The defence had a new look to it, with Gibbs at left-back and Callum Chambers on the other flank. As expected we bossed possession, but met with some stubborn resistance from San Marino, who did well to keep the score at 0-0 for 24 minutes. Then, as in the Peru game in May, Jagielka ran late into the box to score a header, amidst claims of fouls by the San Marinese (?!) players. The floodgates had opened, and Rooney, Welbeck , Sterling were all looking lively in and around the penalty area. It was then no surprise when a second arrived on 43 minutes, when Rooney coolly converted a penalty awarded for a foul. 42 goals for him, and 2-0 to England.
The atmosphere had been reasonable in the first half, but it really flattened out in the second half. England were barely out of second gear, and looked comfortable in control of this, confirmed when Welbeck converted a poachers’ strike on 49 minutes. Thanks to the substitutions, England at one point in the second half had no fewer than 5 Arsenal players on the pitch – Gibbs, Chambers, Wilshere, Welbeck and Oxlade-Chamberlain. Chambers admittedly looked nervous, perhaps understandable on his England debut. We grew slightly wasteful as the game moved on, but I knew that the away side would run out of any remaining energy as we approached the last 20. Sure enough, Townsend made it 4-0 with a rasping drive from outside the box, before Rooney’s chipped cross was turned into the net by an away defender. I had thought this was number 43 for Rooney, but clearly this will have to wait. It was a pity that the atmosphere petered out so much as this wore on, with hoardes of people walking out on 80 minutes, even earlier. I can’t fathom leaving a big game before the final whistle – the only time I do it is when I’m hurrying for a late train to get back. The running joke on the radio the next day was that Joe Hart – described as an ‘interested spectator’ – was man of the match, which probably summed up the game quite neatly. Still, this was three points, a welcome clean sheet and a confidence boost to one or two less well-deployed players. As I had a bus to catch at 1am, I opted to walk from Wembley to Victoria, making it there in plenty of time. I finally arrived through the door at 6.30am on Friday morning – it was definitely well worth it.
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