In a game in which England hit Iran for six, the cardboard cut-out of Jordan Pickford that BBC news showed on display at a Knaresborough primary school earlier in the day could have been deployed in between the sticks for long periods but given the dominance of his side, the Everton goalkeeper will be disappointed to have conceded two goals.
The Blues player could not have been faulted for either but predictably, his usual critics will no doubt find some pedantic stick to try and bash him with.
Such is the scrutiny that Pickford is regularly placed under, you wouldn’t be surprised if some viewers even blamed the aforementioned life size replica of him for being beaten easily by a couple of pea-roller shots that the children tapped past him as they geared up for the big game.
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It was the opposition goalkeepers that were in the spotlight in the first half as Iran’s experienced number one Alireza Beiranvand was forced off with suspected concussion after a collision with one of his own team-mates also left him with a blooded nose.
The delays, before he was eventually replaced by Hossein Hosseini – not before he attempted to play on though having donned a new jersey to replace the splattered original – caused the lion’s share of the 14 additional minutes played before the break but at the other end, Pickford was virtually a spectator as England powered into a 3-0 lead.
His only real moment of danger came when he dallied in possession, a small transgression that he held his hand up over, before he was beaten out of the blue by Iran’s most-experienced performer on the big stage, Mehdi Taremi, a striker who has turned out for Porto in the Champions League, who has broken the 20-goal barrier for the previous three seasons in the Portuguese top flight.
Just as Gareth Southgate was preparing to make four changes ahead of the midway point in the second half with his side 4-0 up, the 30-year-old got in between England centre-back pair Harry Maguire and John Stones to crash a volley in off the crossbar, giving Pickford no chance.
Although he had been denied a clean sheet, a smart stoppage time save from Sardar Azmoun looked like Pickford’s goal would only be breached once.
BBC commentator Guy Mowbray initially claimed the Everton keeper had been beaten by the shot, only for Jermaine Jenas to point out to him that it had been tipped onto the crossbar with former England World Cup custodian Rob Green describing it as “fantastic” adding “Pickford waited and waited and as he goes down he keeps his trailing arm above him to make contact.”
There would be a sting in the tail though with another baffling VAR call following on from the previous day’s controversy in the opening match with an Ecuador goal was chalked off for seemingly nothing more than it would have put hosts Qatar behind early on.
Despite England having earlier been denied a spot kick when Maguire appeared to be wrestled to the ground by Rouzbeh Cheshmi, Stones was adjudged to have tugged an opponent’s shirt and Brazilian referee Raphael Claus pointed to the spot.
Pickford has saved a few high-profile penalties over the years – including in the shoot-out win over Colombia at the last World Cup – but this time he was sent the wrong way by Taremi who slotted in his 30 th goal in 61 internationals.
On what was a game for England to savour, Southgate will still have concerns over the team’s soft centre at the back but anyone who tries to point the finger at Pickford on this occasion would be guilty of continuing a largely baseless vendetta against him that the likes of Neville Southall and Kevin Campbell have both described as a “witch hunt" and the haters need to take a day off.
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