But there was just enough left in the tank for England to snatch a late win and move on from their Euro 2016 humiliation at the hands of Iceland as Lallana, who had earlier hit the post before a Theo Walcott strike was ruled out for offside, struck his first global goal.
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Slovakia’s players were floored as England wildly celebrated going top of the fledgling Group F table – and the moment left a beaming smile on the face of their relieved new manager.
One has to question Big Sam’s thought process here: in an earlier interview with Gabriel Clarke, the 61-year-old claimed that Rooney would not play in midfield, only to then give the captain an opportunity to play anywhere for his first game in charge. He’s been a goalscorer all his life and I want him still to score goals, but he reads a game as he reads it.
Allardyce declared himself happy with Rooney’s performance but curiously suggested that he had deferred to his skipper over where he played and even expressed surprise at how far he dropped.
“Once the team was announced, a lot of people thought I was going to play higher, but I think it suits me for this team, for the way we play”.
Rooney, England’s captain, has been playing as a number 10 for Manchester United this season and Allardyce indicated prior to Sunday’s game that he would use him in a similar role.
His departure signalled a period of intense pressure from England with Lallana hitting the post, and substitute Theo Walcott seeing a scrambled effort ruled out for offside, before the Liverpool midfielder snatched the last-gasp victor. It was not pretty and and somewhat hard for a team who played with one man up when Slovakian’ captain Martin Skrtel a few instants after the hour-mark.
Jan Durica and England’s Adam Lallana battle for the ball.
Having said that, it would be unfair to judge Allardyce on one game.
“I had a few chances tonight. It was only when we went a man down that they created more”.
“A father of a son in a wheelchair came to the hotel in the morning and asked if it was okay to have a picture with his son”, he said, per Jeremy Cross of the Daily Star.
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Allardyce revealed afterwards he will now keep the coin, so here Press Association Sport takes a look at five other sporting lucky charms and superstitions. “We have dominated the game and got a very important win”.
