England defeated 2-1 by Russia

Steve McClaren's position is appearing shaky once again. A 2-1 defeat by Russia has unraveled all the good work England has done in putting a string of five consecutive 3-0 wins together before this decisive group fixture.

He insisted he is not contemplating resignation and will not stay on and fight as England coach but one wonders what else is there to fight since his superstar squad is going to miss out on a trip to the Euro 2008 finals.

England looked to have the win they needed to clinch qualification in the bag when Wayne Rooney put them ahead mid-way through the first half. But two goals in the space of four second-half minutes from super-sub Roman Pavlyuchenko crashed England's hopes and left McClaren barely clinging on to his job.

England are now in a precarious position and qualification is out of their hands. Russia will qualify ahead of England if they can secure wins in Israel. Based on today's performance, that should not be a problem. McClaren has to pray that the Israelis can do England a favour by frustrating the Russians in Tel Aviv.

England will be in an even stronger position if if Macedonia beat Croatia on November 17. Then England could still overtake the current group leader by also beating them at Wembley four days later, although that would require an unlikely three-goal victory against the best side in the group.

With Israel already out of the qualifying race, the odds must be on Russia getting the two wins they need, Croatia joining them in the finals and McClaren being out of a job by the end of next month.

Hiddink rubbed salt into English wounds by suggesting McClaren's men were punished for over-confidence.The Dutchman said: "I had the feeling at half-time if we could keep the pressure on and get an equaliser it would not be easy for them. With one goal they would start worrying."

England thought at half-time that they were leading so even a draw would be a good result. But you must finish the job before you get what you want. That's what we did."I'm very proud of these guys. We did a lot on the sidelines but in the end we can be proud of what the players achieved on the pitch."