HIT LES!
Purveyors of monster riffola such as Pantera, Mastodon and Anthrax ensured that most of the capacity crowd lucky enough to have tickets for the previous occasion Villa Park threw open its doors to outsiders left with their ears bleeding. But on Saturday, those fans unfortunate enough to sit through the first England men’s international staged at the ground since 2005 were left with metaphorical blood pouring from their eyes. While England got the job done against Andorra, Saturday’s match made for grim viewing and for all the home side’s efforts to prance, tippy-tap and triangle their way through the massed hordes of the Andorra defence, it did not go unnoticed that both of England’s goals came from the more Jurassic era approach of unceremoniously hoofing crosses into the opposition box. “The last one was more classic than the first one,” honked Thomas Tuchel of two goals that are unlikely to cross the radar of this year’s Puskás Award jury. “The last one was from the sideline, with the right foot to the second post and our No 10 arrived – Declan. I tell you the long throw-in is back, as well.”
