Curtis Jones was under pressure. “Get rid!” was the instinctive reaction. There were 48 minutes on the clock in Athens and an inexperienced England were being harried by Greece. They were moving the ball backwards, dropping deeper, and it was clear that Greece’s forwards had spied an opportunity to nick possession in a dangerous area.
How would England respond? Previous generations would have struggled to resist the urge to hoof the ball away. Yet the core principle of Carsball is control, and so this England kept playing. There was no fear of the press. Lewis Hall, who had just come on at left-back, simply turned and played a pass back to another debutant. And Jones, who had drifted back into Hall’s area, stayed cool when two Greece players closed him down.
