Match Summary

Trinidad & Tobago Team

England Team

After a long hard season, what better way of relaxing than a trip to the Caribbean?  Funny though, because on the evidence of this match it looked as though it was the last place any of the England players wanted to be.  The game was very poor and Fabio Capello will never have an easier victory.

Four England players were given their debuts, Dean Ashton from the start, and then as substitutes, Joe Hart, Phil Jagielka, and Steven Warnock.  To be fair, the fact that it was their debuts will probably be the only reason to remember the game and none of those players particularly impressed.  England were never in danger of anything other than a win though and scored their first goal after 12 minutes following a good move.  Stewart Downing's long pass down the left wing found Wayne Bridge.  His cross was met powerfully by Gareth Barry who forced the ball over the line from close range for his first England goal.

Most of England's attacking play stemmed from Steven Gerrard who was given the freedom of the midfield to dictate the tempo of the play.  England dominated possession and found some of the home defenders way out of their depth.  Full-back Kern Cupid was particularly vulnerable down the left and England tore him apart.  The second goal also came down the left as Cupid went walkabout leaving Downing the easy task of setting up Jermain Defoe.  Defoe picked his spot with aplomb for his first England goal since September 2004.

Trinidad & Tobago had built up this match as a revenge mission following the previous clash between the sides in the 2006 World Cup in Sweden, a game England won 2-0.  But the home players were not up to the task at all and even their English based players failed to impress.  The home team were hampered when Kenwyne Jones had to go off injured in the 11^th minute following a collision with David James.  With him went T&T's only chance. 

Capello made four substitutions at half-time, Ashton went off, as did James, Rio Ferdinand and, much to the disappointment of the crowd, David Beckham, whose every touch had been savoured by an adoring audience.  His replacement, David Bentley made an instant impact though and within four minutes of the restart his cross from the right was headed down by fellow substitute Peter Crouch into the path of Defoe and the striker scored his second of the match.  That goal did not go down too well with the home crowd as they had still not forgiven Crouch for his goal in that World Cup game, especially as he had pulled the dreadlocks of defender Brent Sancho just before scoring. 

The only other incident worth recording in this match also involved Crouch.  This time the big forward combined well with Gerrard to set up Defoe with another chance.  The Pompey player should have had his hat-trick but inexplicably scuffed his shot wide of the goal.  And that was it, season over, and now it really was time for the players to hit the beaches!

Source Notes

BBC Sport
TheFA.com
SkySports.com
ESPN Soccernet
Guardian.co.uk
TheSun.co.uk
Mike Payne - football historian and contributor
and Roger Baker for adding the Trinidadian stats.
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CG