A new season, a new captain and very much a new era for England, as we said goodbye to several of our regular players from the past ten years or so.  This 'new' England began their season with a friendly match against Norway, and Roy Hodgson selected a side of young talent, all in good club form, and raring to go under new skipper Wayne Rooney.  The first task was to put the memory of a dismal World Cup campaign behind them as they prepared for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers.

England began the match confidently, passing the ball well and moving it crisply across the lush green turf of Wembley. And after four minutes they had their first chance when they won a free-kick just outside the penalty area, would it be Rooney or Leighton Baines?  It turned out to be Baines but the ball flew well over the crossbar as the Everton player fluffed the kick.

For the next ten minutes, England played slowly and methodically, trying to entice Norway out from their defensive shell.  The visitors seemed content with 0-0 from the very first whistle!  It was left to the two liveliest players on the pitch to create the first piece of excitement.  Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge combined brilliantly to set the latter up.  But Sturridge's shot was weak and easily blocked.  Then Jack Wilshere almost played in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but from the resultant corner Phil Jones headed well wide.  There was some neat football by England but the final ball was never quite right.  Some of the play was too Arsenal-ish, with plenty of possession but no end product.

In the 21st minute a rare sortie forward by Norway ended with Tarik Elyounoussi giving Joe Hart his first save, albeit an easy one.  Wilshere continued to probe with some good passes which just failed to unlock the tightly packed Norwegian back line, and then on 25 minutes England came very close to an opening goal.  A brilliant pass by Sterling, spotting a run from his club colleague Sturridge, found the Liverpool striker in with a great chance.  Unfortunately, his hurried lob cleared the goalkeeper, but also cleared the crossbar too.  At least England came close and it was the nearest to a goal so far.

One disappointing feature of England's play was in the number of times they wasted free-kicks and corners.  From one attack Baines saw a shot blocked for a corner and from the kick Gary Cahill shot tamely wide.

Before half-time a cross from the left caused alarm at the back for England but Jones cleared the danger.  Hart then moved smartly to dive at Mats Daehli's feet whilst at the other end Wilshere went down in the box under a challenge to screams of penalty from the crowd.  The referee thought otherwise and the half ended with Norway's goalkeeper Orjan Nyland having not been tested.

The England fans hoped that after the break England would up the tempo and put pressure on the Norway back four, but in fact it was the visitors who did exactly that early in the second half.  But for two excellent saves from Hart, England could have found themselves behind.  Josh King, whose main claim to fame (to this Preston fan) is that he became North End's 1000th first team player during a loan spell at Deepdale, suddenly produced a fine header from a corner.  A brilliant leap and a strong left hand from Hart saved the day for England.  Shortly afterwards a bad slip by Cahill, again let in King, and this time he was thwarted by Hart's legs as the goalkeeper spread himself well.

At this point England struggled for possession and Norway were definitely the better side in this early part of the second period.  But there were few incidents of note until the 67th minute.  Sterling, lively throughout, found space down the left and as he went past Omar Elabdellaoui, the defender lunged in and Sterling went down.  This time it was a penalty!  It was time for the skipper to step up to the plate.  Rooney had had a very quiet game thus far, but the confident way he whacked home the penalty lifted everyone's spirits.  It was his 41st [ed: 40th] England goal, he is now 4th [ed: still fifth] in the list of goalscorers, but it was also his last kick as Hodgson brought him off following a raft of substitutions.  Fabian Delph, James Milner and Danny Welbeck all came on, with Delph making his debut.  Welbeck was soon in the action too, and he forced Nyland into a good save on 73 minutes, as well as adding some strength in attack.  He almost set up Delph for a debut goal with a great cross from the left, but Delph was just too far behind the play.

Other substitutions for both sides were made and the game began to peter out.  Good play by Delph, Sterling and Welbeck gave Henderson a sight of goal but his 20 yard shot was too high.  At least now though England looked as though they had a bit more of a goal threat.  It was ironical that they were playing better with Rooney off the field.  John Stones went off to enable Calum Chambers to make his full England debut, and Stones can be satisfied with a steady showing at right-back.  The rhythm of the game was lost by now though as the many substitutions interrupted proceedings, although there was time for one more England attack, and it was a good one too.

A Norway corner was intercepted and a swift breakaway by Sturridge found Sterling who passed inside to the marauding Milner.  Only a late saving block by a defender prevented Milner's left-footed shot finding the target.  1-0 was about right though and it was a relief for England to at least win their first match for a while.  Quite a few positives for the home side, but the sterner tests ahead may produce a few more questions for Hodgson to answer.