A little more than half-an-hour into this tight, labouring friendly and, at last, a little room to be exploited, a bit of sharpness of thought.
Marc Guehi provides the latter, dinking a quick free-kick from the edge of his own box over the disoriented, one-man Bosnian press. England's left-back receives it, with 30 yards of grass between him and the closest challenger, then the defender's nightmare of another 50 beyond that.
Except, of course, England's left-back is actually one of their many right-backs. And so, rather than drive up the touchline, Kieran Trippier crosses halfway cautiously and then checks back.
Off his favoured right foot, he instead plays a cross-field switch — and not a brilliant one at that; a lofty, airy thing that forces its target, Jarrod Bowen, to slow his own run to meet its path. From having only three men behind the ball at the moment of Trippier's first touch, by the time Bowen has it under control, Bosnia suddenly have all their players back.
It was one small passage, an opening, not a chance, quickly come and gone, but nor was it isolated.
Trent Alexander-Arnold drilled his usual series of tracer diagonals from deep-right to high-left, but those flat passes are not quite the same defence-stretching weapon when the recipient's instinctive direction is back into the heart of the pitch.
Eberechi Eze pulled rivals out of position on his easy drifts, but without an overlapping option to pillage the abandoned territory, England could not quite take full advantage.
The concern is that almost all of Southgate's leading options to start on the left-wing this summer do their best work inside — and all would be helped by the width of the presently injured Luke Shaw.
Southgate said earlier this week that the Manchester United defender has a "good chance" of making the tournament, and one need only recall his displays at the last Euros — and the last-16 win over Germany in particular — to recognise what a boost that would be. Which is no deliberate slight on Trippier. This was a proud night for one of
England's most reliable servants, captain on his home ground, and should Shaw fail to recover in time, the Newcastle defender would remain the best
alternative in a specialist-free squad, defensively diligent and experienced in the biggest tournament games.
But think back to Shaw's terrific opener in the biggest of them all, the last Euros final against Italy, and ask whether an unnatural deputy would even have made the instinctive run to be in position, never mind able to execute on the volley off the left-boot? The irony, of course, is that was a goal made by Trippier's cross from the right.
