Top 5 England World Cup Goals

Well they put us through the ringer again but England finally found their form and made it through to the knockout stages. In celebration of that, and to get us in the mood for the forthcoming game against Germany, here are my top 5 England World Cup goals.

1. Michael Owen v Argentina (1998) - Little Michael Owen sets the nation on fire with this jinking run and quality finish. My 30th birthday forever marked by this moment of brilliance and another departure on penalties.



2. David Platt v Belgium (1990) - Wonderful turn and volley to clinch victory in the dying seconds.



3. Gary Lineker v Poland (1986) - Gary notched a hatrick in this game to put us through after two poor opening performances (sounds familiar!). Either of the first two would be worthy of inclusion but the quick and accurate passing makes the first goal my favourite.



4. Geoff Hurst v West Germany (1966) - Some people are on the pitch! Sir Geoff's third goal to confirm England's one and only World Cup triumph.



5. Joe Cole v Sweden (2006) - Joe Cole lights up an otherwise dull encounter with this remarkable effort. Hmm. That kid can play a bit guess he ought to be in the starting eleven!!



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Top 5 England World Cup songs

Well, it couldn't really be anything else. I've had a couple of weeks "off Football", a lovely holiday in sunny Cornwall and am now ready for a month of the greatest football tournament in the world.

1. "Three Lions" Baddiel & Skinner with The Lightning Seeds (1998 World Cup) - I'm really talking the original Euro 96 version but it has since been adopted as a proper England song for just about every World Cup since. I still know the lyrics word for word and they really mean something, it's now 44 years of hurt but Baddiel & Skinner genuinely captured how most England fans feel about the national team.



2. "World In Motion" New Order (1990 World Cup) - Kind of an average New Order song with Keith Allen looning about and the genius of the John Barnes rap. 1990 was a very special competition (which we should have won) and this song evokes many happy memories.



3. "Back Home" England Squad (1970 World Cup) - Proper footy song sung by the squad. Cracking little ditty with decent lyrics and a surprisingly in tune set of vocals. We should have won it this year as well.



4. "Vindaloo" Fat Les (1998 World Cup) - Keith Allen again. He's a Fulham fan and the na-na-na section was based on something Fulham fans used to sing in the early 90's. It's got some moments that make you cringe, you could say that about most of Keith's career, but it's still pretty good.



5. "We're On The Ball" England 1970 squad? - Not the Ant & Dec version released for the 2006 world cup (though I've had to use their video below) but the original that I think might have featured on the 1970 World Cup album. Baddiel & Skinner talked about it on their "Fantasy Football League" show and I always thought it was one of those songs that was both brilliant and crap at the same time. The Ant & Dec version is just crap.



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Worst 5 England Managers

In tribute to Steve McClaren's short but woeful reign in charge of our national team here are my five worst England managers.

1. Graham Taylor (1990-1993) When the man we would eventually all know by a selection of vegetable analogies first took over the job I thought it was going to be a good thing. How wrong I was. Not only led the team to a poor performance in the 1992 European Championships, in which he substituted Gary Linekar in his last International game, but also failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, a campaign that was captured in horrific detail by a Channel 4 documentary.

2. Sven-Göran Eriksson (2001-06) The man single-handedly responsible for wasting the so called "golden generation". Yes I know he's a great club manager and his results and qualification record were actually pretty good. However, when the important games came around he didn't have the guts to do the job required.

3. Steve McClaren (2006-07) Not content to seeing six good years wasted under Eriksson, the FA felt it was a good idea to use his right hand man as his replacement, thus ensuring that we'd not have to waste any time on one of those tricky little European competitions that come round every now and again.

4. Kevin Keegan (1999-2000) Clearly he should never have left Fulham. At least he was passionate and had the good honour to quit when he realised it was far too big a task for him.

5. Glenn Hoddle (1996-1999) Mad as a loon and arrogant with it. Actually did OK results wise but had a far greater opinion of his own abilities than anyone sensibly should.