Front three are as good as any but England must improve defence and midfield September 11, 2019 England’s pair of high-scoring wins over Bulgaria and Kosovo will have left Gareth Southgate broadly happy, although the Euro 2020 qualifying double-header did highlight their shortcomings. They were always going to takes six points from these fixtures – anything else would have been a huge shock – but I’d suggest Southgate would have expected two [...]
Blair Witch game review: Bloober Team over-stretches with this ambitious but flawed tale September 11, 2019 There are moments in Blair Witch that live up to the promise of the source material, recreating the sense of suffocating panic that comes from being lost and alone. It’s an area in which Polish games developer Bloober Team has form: in psychological horror Layers of Fear, doors would flicker out of existence when you [...]
England 5-3 Kosovo: Three Lions show all their colours in wide-open thriller at St Mary’s September 10, 2019 Fans often moan that international football is boring, that games are one-sided and that results are predictable. Those gripes were nowhere to be heard tonight as England and Kosovo served up an absurdly open, seesawing and incident-packed eight-goal thriller at St Mary’s. It was a crazy Euro 2020 qualifier which had it all, displaying all [...]
England must press the reset button and use their Ashes disappointment to drive a new era September 9, 2019 Not so long ago England were the best Test cricket side in the world. The story of how they went from world No7 in 2009 to the summit just over two years later has been retold recently, first through the gripping film The Edge and now with the release of former England captain Alastair Cook’s [...]
Why England should beware in-form Kosovo in Euro 2020 qualifier September 9, 2019 England play Kosovo for the first time on Tuesday as both sides attempt to take another step towards qualifying for next summer’s European Championship. Here’s the lowdown on the opposition. Kosovo are ranked below Tajikistan, so this should be easy, right? England will be expected to maintain their 100 per cent start to Group A, [...]
England can’t have any complaints, Australia have been the better side from day one and thoroughly deserve to win the Ashes September 8, 2019 It’s a shame that England are ending an incredible summer on a disappointing note but there can’t be any debate that Australia 100 per cent deserve to win this Ashes series. They have been the best side from day one. Having won at Edgbaston, they dominated the second Test at Lord’s, where they would have [...]
Jadon Sancho can relieve England’s reliance on Raheem Sterling if given chance ahead of Marcus Rashford September 8, 2019 It sounds pernickety to demand more from a football team that has just won 4-0, taking their record in the current competition to: played three; won three; goals for: 14; goals against: one. But such is the nature of major tournament qualifying matches that England did not need to conjure an abundance of chances to [...]
It Chapter 2 film review: Stephen King adaptation limps over the line September 6, 2019 Pennywise the dreadful clown is brilliant as a twisted metaphor for our childhood fears. He is less brilliant as a literal space alien who can only be defeated through some arcane Native American ritual. Alas, that’s where Stephen King’s bulging 1,200-page novel ends up. It proved to be the undoing of the 1990 TV mini-series, [...]
Hansard at the National Theatre play review: Political drama is a blistering debut September 6, 2019 George Osborne was in the audience for this blistering political drama by debut playwright Simon Woods, no doubt taking some credit for lines such as: “It’s so easy to mistake an expensive education for a genuine understanding of the world”. Hansard – the title taken from the verbatim record of everything said in Parliament – [...]
Ollie Phillips: Still places to play for in England’s final World Cup warm-up against Italy September 5, 2019 England head to Newcastle United’s St James’ Park for their final warm-up game against Italy tomorrow before they fly to Japan for the World Cup — and what an occasion it will be. Newcastle seems to be turning into a real hotbed of rugby after hosting the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup in May, so [...]