Anyway, as the World Cup starts for real today, I've backed Zigic to score first and the World Champions ( ) to win 2-0 at 35/1.

Also gone for Algeria/Slovenia to draw, Serbia to win, and Germany to win at 6.25/1.

I need to start winning some money!

I really think Slovenia will beat Algeria.

I'm a Norwich City fan so I've followed him throughout his career.

Admittedly he has made a few errors but nothing of that magnitude.

I have football coaching qualifications and I can sympathise with keepers because it's the most difficult position to play.

If an outfield player makes a mistake, he misses a chance, he gives the ball away, he gifts somebody a chance.

If a keeper makes a mistake, the ball invariably ends up in the back of his net.

It's an unforgiving position emphasised by the fact there probably only 3 or 4 keepers on the planet who could be considered truely world class.

Go back and watch every Yanited game. Rooney will have probably missed 20 chances like that. If I watch the Chelsea games again, Drogba will have probably missed 20 as well.

Rooney and Drogba are infinitely superior to Heskey, so they hide their 20 misses by knocking in a load of other chances. That results in people remembering their great scoring rate, but for some reason the misses get forgotten.

If you're talking about Joe Cole scoring that chance then you simply haven't watched him. He'd have skied it or hit a tame shot that bounced towards the keeper.

It very much depends which Algeria turn up. If their heads are bolted on, they're a handy side. However, as we saw in Angola earlier in the year, they can be their own worst enemies at times.
Slovenia are a well organised side, difficult to break down, and I have one English pound on them winning the comeptition. Forward Slovenia!

I was actually talking about Ashley Cole mate.

You're probably right about the miss TBF, it just looked unforgiveable. Like you say with Drogba / Rooney, they can make misses like that, but inevitably they make up for it.

If England don't improve, I can see Rooney getting another World Cup red shortly. His temper seems to be worsening. It's probably due to the fact that he's not scored for a while for England and he's feeling the pressure of been the key man. He needs a goal, desperately.

If you hadn't seen the game but read the reaction to Heskey's miss you'd think he had missed an open goal from a yard out or something, yes the very best strikers would have probably put a similar chance away 8 times out of 10, but it was far from the gimme it has been made out to be.

It just smacks as people trying to find a reason to slag off the usual scapegoat because, in the main, he actually did what he is in the team to do pretty well.

This is the problem I have with Heskey though. He seems to get picked in the team purely to be a nuisance. Surely at this level we should picking players who can score goals? Crouch provides an aerial threat, admittedly less than Heskey, but knows how to finish. Heskey has 5 in 45 for Villa(i think) and has 7 in 60ish for England. That just isn't enough for me. All the stuff about Rooney playing better of Heskey didn't happen last night. Personally I would start Crouch against Algeria.

Ashley Cole scored 4 goals last season. Last season was his best goalscoring season in his career. I really wouldn't have expected him to score from that position at all.

Crouch maybe tall, but I don't think he playes anything like Heskey does at all.

We scored lots of goals in qualifying, and Gerrard and Rooney started showing consistent form for England in the system because the presence of Heskey pushes defences back and stretches them - leaving space for those two to do their stuff in, I don't think Crouch has the pace, strength or movement to do that.

I think the system Capello used to get us here uses what we have got pretty well, I don't think it is good enough to win the thing, because I don't think we have the players to win the world cup.