Hoddle’s widening horizon

This is why the most encouraging aspect of England’s first game was the way the tactical discipline and good organisation, which haddistinguished the team’s away performances in the qualifiers, resurfaced. There was little to distinguish Monday’s display from the 2-0 victory over Georgia in Tblisi 17 months earlier.

So unless circumstances dictate otherwise this is the way it will be while England cope with the business of qualifying all over again. Once they reach the knockout stage there may be variations, but for the moment Paul Ince and David Batty will remain as props in midfield while Paul Scholes does his utmost to win over the diminishing band of mourners for Paul Gascoigne.

After Monday’s game these may be hard pressed to form a quorum. The Gascoigne of 1990 was long gone long ago. Already Scholes, though a totally different footballer in style, mood, temperament and behaviour, looks as if he could be an equally profound influence on England’s performances in 1998.

The frequency with which the 23-year-old Manchester United player spun away from Kaies Ghodbane in midfield to link up with Teddy Sheringham and Alan Shearerwill have alerted Romania and Colombia to Scholes’s potential as a match winner. Against Tunisia he might have opened his first World Cup with a hat-trick. As it was, his goal, officially timed at 89 minutes, saved the disappointment of failing to take two easier chances before half-time.

Yesterday, Hoddle pursed his lips about the performance of Darren Anderton, preferred to David Beckham on the right as the one surprising element of the in initial team selection. He had not come along, he said, to discuss why one player was in or another out. Maybe he has Beckham on his conscience, though probably not.

Where Scholes was concerned, however, Hoddle continued to wax lyrical. "Where he played yesterday was probably his best position," he enthused, "But wherever he plays he will give you quality. The timing of his runs into the box and his finishing have just got better and better. And he’s so level-headed and down-to-earth. He does his thinking with his feet. He just wants to play football." Well, so doesGascoigne if it comes to that. The difference between them has something to do with brushes.

Hoddle was pleased with Sheringham’s performance. He had never thought seriously about starting with Michael Owen as Shearer’s partner up front, but the 18-year-old Liverpool striker did replace Sheringham for the last six minutes. "He’s an outstanding talent," said Sheringham, whose position will come increasingly under threat the more this talent develops during the tournament.

Sheringham admitted the newspaper pictures of him relaxing in Portugal with beer, blonde and fag in the early hours during England’s pre-World Cup break had made him wonder whether he would lose his place as a result. "Sheringham did everything I asked him to do," said Hoddle. Presumably Shearer, whose header shortly before half-time underlined the grip England had established on the game by then, did not need to be asked.

Here is where the ability of Scholes to pop up near goal while defenders are coping with the more obvious dangerscould benefit England in coming matches. No wonder the sky here was cloud-free yesterday for the first time since Hoddle’s squad arrived.

Sheringham feared axe

Teddy Sheringham admitted he expected to be dropped From England’s World Cup opener with Tunisia after going on a drinking spree in a Portuguese nightclub just before the tournament started. That highly-publicised "bender" could easily have cost him his place in the squad altogether but coach Hoddle let him off with a warning after demanding and getting a public apology. And Sheringham grasped the chance Hoddle had given him by linking up well with Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes against Tunisia. "I doubted if I would start against Tunisia because of the trouble of the last couple of weeks.."