No substitute for decisiveness: Roy slow to react as England run out of options

By Matt Barlow

PUBLISHED: 18:45 EST, 26 March 2013 | UPDATED: 03:35 EST, 27 March 2013

The soundtrack of Podgorica will ring long and loud in Roy Hodgson’s ears when he wakes today and the relentless Slavic dirge will bring with it no satisfaction.

England have one point more to their collection but failed to pass this test of character, losing the impressive clarity of their first-half performance amid the din of Montenegro’s fiercely passionate fans.

Last time, the blow of two points tossed away in this city was softened by automatic qualification for Euro 2012. Seventeen months on, it is deepened by the knowledge there is work to do and we may not be up to the task.

Charismatic: Branko Brnovic (left) greets Roy Hodgson (right) ahead of kick-off at the City Stadium

England have still to beat a team above minnow status in Group H and the manner of last night’s second-half collapse will leave its scars when they return to competitive action in the autumn.

Perhaps the well of talent is too simply shallow if the manager is required to plunge into the reserves. Perhaps, worse still, those at the surface are not what they used to be.

Or perhaps the manager will have to swallow a little blame on this occasion, because for some time in the second half he could see his side sinking into trouble as the clamour reached its peak and he did not make a change.

What had looked like cool control in the first half, when he stayed beneath the protection of the Perspex roof on his bench as his team carried out their orders well, suddenly looked like hesitancy.

Branko Brnovic, he responsible for most of the pre-match taunts accusing England of being 'scared' and 'weak' had injected a little urgency into his team during the half-time interval.

Game of two halves: Joleon Lescott was outstanding in the first half against Montenegro

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Montenegro could have been out of it. Wayne Rooney had opened the scoring and hit the woodwork. The visitors were firmly in command but lost this grip, as they did on their last visit, when a two-goal lead turned into a draw.

On both occasions, mistakes were made under pressure turning three points into one. In the end, Hodgson may have been happy to escape with the point and retreat into a fallow six-month period of non-competitive football where he can reflect upon how to beat this tiny nation which has become a right pain in the Balkans for English football.

Three games without a win against Montenegro can be called three games without defeat but it is nothing to be proud of, not when the country produces its team from a population of only 650,000, even if they fight and scrap like many more.

The verbal grenades hurled from the home camp on the eve of the game had been turned to real missiles of various shapes and Hodgson seemed slow to react to the desire and energy injected into the game at half-time by the home team.

What had appeared to be cool control in the first half suddenly looked like indecision.

Fearless: There was no evidence that James Milner (right) or his team-mates were scared of the opposition

Perfect start: Wayne Rooney nodded home the opener for England in the City Stadium

England had been forced back, riding their luck. Joe Hart dropped a shot which landed between his own legs, spun and gripped in the tufty turf rather than slithering across the goal line.

Hart’s goal was protected by a sequence of last-ditch clearances and blocks, the ball slammed into the side-netting, the frame of the goal came the rescue and Vucinic erred when he whipped a shot wide rather than pass short to Dejan Damjanovic who was unmarked.

The warning sirens were sounding long before Damjanovic squeezed the equaliser through a crowded goalmouth after a corner but England resisted the change.

Immediately after the goal, on came Ashley Young for Tom Cleverley. England improved and finished the game well but whether this was because Montenegro had eased back and settled for a draw is impossible to tell.

'We were trying to hold on to make the change at a slightly later time,' said Hodgson. 'We were trying to make it at the corner kick. We wanted to move Steven Gerrard deeper and move Ashley Young in the wide position, but it didn’t help us stop conceding the goal because they scored it as we made it.

Decorated: Joe Hart stands on the pitch with toilet paper strewn over his shoulders

'You're always debating changes, talking with your staff but at 1-0 we weren't 100 per cent convinced there was a change we could make to make a vast difference to what was going on, on the field.'

Here betrays the manager’s belief that his squad lacks options, particularly when attacked by withdrawals.

Hodgson’s options were limited by England’s natural lack of defensive midfield options and the absence of so many central defenders.

In the end, he made an adventurous change, rather than try to protect his back-four with Frank Lampard or Leon Osman but by then the dynamic of the game had changed.

The final whistle was met with the loudest cheer of a raucous night. Brnovic and his coaching staff leapt in the air and spilled onto the pitch with the substitutes.

Frustrated: England wilted under the Montenegrin pressure, allowing the hosts to snatch an equaliser

Montenegrin players whipped off their shirts and rejoiced as the now-hoarse megaphone man who had led the crowd in song for more than two hours started to taunt the visitors with the English insults in his repertoire.

Without pretending that it does not matter to Hodgson’s players but it footballing success means so much to this newly independent nation, who played its first international game on the same day England played their 850th.

'No Mirko, No Party', read a banner in homage to the captain and the fact that the Montenegro FA will probably be hit with their fifth fine in 18 months for the missiles thrown and flares lit will not silence the celebrations.

Only England can do that by beating them at Wembley.

VIDEO: Watch Kevin Quigley's brilliant showreel from Podgorica