Home Nations rally

An evening of predicted international disappointment was put to the back of the mind last night as the Home Nations produced impressive displays to lend much needed hope to respective World Cup qualifying campaigns.

England are sitting pretty at the top of their group after Theo Walcott came of age in Zagreb scoring a hat-trick. Sven Goran-Eriksson will have allowed himslef a smug smile when he heard the news of Walcott's performance as it begins to add some justification to the decision to take him to Germany as a spectator in the last World Cup instead of giving the shirt to another forward who might have made a telling contribution to England's chances. In the process, Fabio Capello became the first visiting manager to beat Croatia on their turf in a qualifying game. The win is a massive boost for England as Croatia, along with the Ukraine, represented the main qualifying threat to England.

Scotland won 2-1 in Reyjavik and were coasting at 2-0 until Stephen McManus handled in the box to allow Gudjohnson to pull one back from the spot. Down to 10-men Scotland held on during a frantic Iceland finish in the last 15 minutes. The result here sets Scotland up for the Norway game at Hampden next month but qualification hopes still look like they will be via the play-offs as the Dutch have a game in hand and will be expected to beat Scotland over two games next year.

Northern Ireland earned a creditable draw in Belfast with the Czech Republic and Wales went close to getting an extremely unlikley draw in Russia but were beaten 2-1 by a late Pogregnyak goal.

We can now look forward to three matches in a week in the Championship as the table begins to take shape. Wolves at home is followed by a Tuesday evening game in Doncaster and a trip to Forest a week on Saturday. If we have any realistic promotion hopes this season we must be looking to get something in each of these games. We should view Wolves at home as game we can win or at least take a point from depending on how good Wolves actually are. Doncaster and Forest were both promoted last season and we should create enough chances against both of these sides to stay in the games. Five points from the three games would be an acceptable return and a win on Saturday over the Old Gold might give us realistic hopes of making it six points or more.