England had a rather depleted line-up starting the game with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Newcastle and it took a while for the players to find their feet after not having played much since the end of our season. Eventually, though, the team gained a comfortable win against a determined and organised opponent. Quite a few players looked a little rusty but Conor Gallagher was working hard in midfield and Jarrod Bowen looked lively on the right wing.

There was an immediate scare in the third minute when goalkeeper Jordan Pickford hit a pass straight to a Bosnian player just outside the area, but luckily nothing came of it. Pickford has made a bit of a habit of those clearances in recent games, and that must stop.

There were some robust challenges flying in from the visitors, with Ebere Eze fouled by Anel Ahmedhodzic being one of the worst tackles. The resultant free-kick was cleared, but on nine minutes the first real chance of the game fell to Ollie Watkins. A fine pass found him behind the defenders and to the right of goal, and despite being pushed, held and shoved by Nikola Katic, he fired in a shot, which goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj blocked well with his body. If Watkins had gone down under the challenge then the Aston Villa player would have had a good case for a penalty.

Unfortunately, England then went into one of those spells where the usual pattern of slow, slow, quick, slow, slow passing kept possession well but had little effect on the attacking side of their game. On 18 minutes Gallagher shot over, a rare piece of excitement for the large crowd and then a TV close-up of substitute Anthony Gordon, sitting on the bench and stifling a yawn sort of summed up the proceedings of the game so far. On 27 minutes though, there was some play that really did get the crowd going and it came from Eze. A brilliant run, weaving in and out of Bosnia defenders finally won a corner. From that corner only the outstretched foot of the goalkeeper stopped a certain goal from Ezri Konsa's shot.

As for the visitors, they largely relied on quick breakaways, and the England defenders had to work hard to stop the speed of some of those occasional breaks. In one of those attacks England gave the ball away very cheaply, but a defender blocked the shot away for a corner, which was cleared. England's passes in the final third of the pitch were poor at times although right on half-time the lively Bowen put in a good cross which was scrambled clear, before the same player forced a save from Vasilj. The half ended goalless and it was not the most inspiring of halves for the crowd, the hope was that the second half would be better.

And so it proved as England upped the tempo, forced the Bosnia & Herzegovina players back more and more often, and started to create a few more chances. Trent Alexander-Arnold sent in a cross, headed over by Watkins, and then Watkins just failed to beat the keeper to a through ball. England were winning corners more frequently now and Cole Palmer saw a shot blocked after Bowen had set the player up. Then, on 58 minutes the breakthrough came.

Following another corner, a foul had been spotted and a VAR check was called for. With all the pushing and pulling that had gone on before, it seemed odd that something was spotted this time. But sure enough, after the referee had been told to have a look at the monitor, he turned and signalled a penalty. Replays showed that there had been a blatant pull on Konsa's shirt by Benjamin Tahirovic and this time the defender was penalised. Penalty to England, and who should be waiting to come on but Harry Kane, chomping at the bit to take the spot-kick. Common sense prevailed though as Palmer was entrusted with the kick and Kane was made to wait. Good decision too, as Palmer put the kick away with a certain aplomb.

A raft of substitutions then took place with Kane amongst the five players who came on for England, and the tales were up now for the home side. With 30 minutes left England upped their game again and peppered the visitors with a number of goal attempts. Gallagher and Bowen won corners and then Kane headed over from a cross from the left. On 72 minutes Kane forced a fine save from Vasilj. After more pressure England finally put the game to bed in the 85th minute. Jack Grealish showed good skills before sending a fine cross over to the right, where Alexander-Arnold was unmarked and calling for it. The pass was perfect and so was A-A's shot, a volley into the far corner. A great goal which put a better reflection on the scoreline.

In the last minute the score was made even more emphatic when another good pass by Grealish found James Maddison, who saw his shot blocked unwittingly by Konsa standing almost on the goalline. The ball rebounded across goal and Kane reacted by scrambling a shot past the keeper for the 63rd goal for his country.

So, a much better second-half showing by England and the crowd went home happy after taking particular note of the impact that Eze, Bowen and Gallagher could make in the next games. There is an abundance of talent in this England squad, let's hope that Gareth Southgate makes all the right calls in the coming weeks.
  

Source Notes