England departed for Brazil with a whimper as they were held to a disappointing draw against the Republic of Ireland last night.
Having slipped further behind Montenegro in their World Cup qualifying campaign two months ago, this friendly was a perfect chance for Roy Hodgson's men to end their home calendar with a victory.
However, they could not deliver. Shane Long had two men marking him in Glen Johnson and Phil Jagielka, but neither of them could prevent the West Bromwich Albion man glancing a header past Joe Hart with 13 minutes gone. Only a defensive mix-up at the other end allowed Frank Lampard to level 10 minutes later.
The game that promised to be a thrilling end-to-end Premier League-style scrap ended up being a tepid affair thereafter. England failed to create any real chances until the 83rd minute, when David Forde saved from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Although Ireland's organisation made it hard for England, if they are serious about reaching the World Cup, let alone progress to the latter stages of the competition, they should be winning games like this.
They cannot afford to drop any more points in their qualifying campaign and of late they have failed to beat Poland (ranked 63rd in the world), Ukraine (37th), Montenegro (27th) and now Ireland, who sit 39th in the ladder.
England looked tired at times and their hopes of a surprise victory in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday look slim, especially after Daniel Sturridge limped off with an ankle injury.
The only plus point for England was that both national anthems were well observed despite fears there would be a repeat of the trouble that marred the last meeting between the two sides 18 years ago.
Ashley Cole, as Hodgson eventually made clear after much head scratching, led the team out and looked moved as he collected a golden cap to commemorate reaching a century of caps in February.
Most England supporters respected the FA's wishes, with only a handful singing "no surrender" during God Save The Queen. The colourful 10,000 travelling fans made a lot of noise and they had something extra to cheer about when Long scored.
Jon Walters fed the ball to Seamus Coleman, who whipped in a cross to the near post and Long got in front of Johnson and Jagielka to glance the ball beyond a sprawling Hart.
The West Brom striker cupped his ears in front of the England fans, while one member of the travelling support at the other end of the stadium tossed a green smoke bomb on to the pitch which caused a brief stoppage in play.
England had Lampard to thank for coming to the rescue 10 minutes later. Sturridge gained half a yard with some nifty footwork and drove a low ball across the box which Lampard controlled with his thigh after a mix-up between Sean St Ledger and Glenn Whelan before flicking the ball past Forde with his right foot.
"I was very pleased with the second half performance, we had sufficient dominance and goal chances to win the game but we must give credit to the Irish goalkeeper," said Hodgson. "I can't complain about anything we did today. They scored a good goal but it was the only time they looked like scoring."
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