Don’t rush home from work, England take a while to get going

Our friends at chickendinner have been looking at ways for you to make money on tonight’s England match and believe that betting on the second-half containing more goals than the first is a sound bet. Here’s why:

» In each of England’s last five competitive games there have been more goals scored in the second half than there have in the opening forty-five.

» The margin by which the second-half has outscored the first has increased as the run has gone on:

World Cup Qualifier, 7.30pm, Setanta Sports 1, £10 Free Bet

Rather than just telling you why Wayne Rooney might score in Minsk, our friends at chickendinner have examined all ten likely outfield starters for England tonight and assessed each individual’s chances of scoring the opening goal:

Wayne Bridge - The left-back hasn’t scored in 21 months and his one international goal, against Iceland in 2004, was the sixth in that match.

Matthew Upson - He’s the only likely outfield starter without an international goal but his only goal in the last 22 months was an important one: West Ham’s winner against Manchester United last December.

Rio Ferdinand - Has only once managed to score in consecutive games in his career and even then only one was a first goal.

Wes Brown - Scored his first England goal at home to the Czech Republic

And not just because the fans need to find someone else to boo

John Terry and Ashley Cole are both returning to Chelsea after being ruled out of Wednesday’s game in Belarus and while Cole may have made a dreadful mistake against Kazakhstan, his hamstring injury is bad news for England.

England have won each of the last seven competitive games that Cole has started. In the last two qualifiers he missed, first Joleon Lescott covered for him away to Russia and England were beaten 2-1 and then Wayne Bridge tried to fill the void against Croatia at Wembley when England fell to a disastrous 3-2 defeat.

Considering those two players are Fabio Capello’s only alternatives in Minsk on Wednesday, it’s a shame Lampard and Gerrard still don’t have a clue how to play together because Gareth Barry filling in at left-back might be the only way to break this curse and avoid disaster.

Latest attempt to accomodate Lampard, Barry and Gerrard fails

By providing the set-pieces for the two goals that got England going against Kazakhstan on Saturday, Frank Lampard emerged as the clear winner in the latest round of the “who should start in central midfield for England?” debate.

With the three-man midfield failing in the first-half, Fabio Capello switched to a 4-4-2 at half-time but rather than sacrificing Steven Gerrard it was Gareth Barry that made way. Of course, five goals followed which vindicated the decision to change shape but there was no new evidence that Lampard and Gerrard can work in tandem.

So should Capello again try to accomodate all three against Belarus on Wednesday or should he be bold and actually leave someone on the bench? Vote and leave a comment below.