Will Robinson pay for Wembley blunder?

Paul Robinson is waiting to see whether he will remain England's number one goalkeeper after his blunder in the 2-1 friendly defeat at the hands of Germany at Wembley.

The Tottenham stopper gifted German striker Kevin Kuranyi a first-half equaliser, which cancelled out Frank Lampard's fifth-minute opener, when he failed to deal with Bernd Schnieder's 26th-minute cross at Wembley.

Robinson, whose gaffe in Croatia contributed to England's 2-0 defeat in their qualifying campaign, was then beaten by a 25-yard thunderbolt from debutant Christian Pander five minutes before half-time.

But Steve McClaren is refusing to make any knee-jerk reactions ahead of next month's vital back-to-back qualifiers against Israel and Russia at Wembley.

McClaren, who brought on Portsmouth's David James for Robinson at half-time but believes the defence must take collective responsibility, said: "I was disappointed with the way we conceded that goal. It may have been a mistake but there were two or three mistakes before that.

"I'm disappointed with the goals but this isn't a night to publicly state anything about the team in the future. I can't make any public comments about any of the keepers or any of the outfield players."

James is determined to push blundering Robinson all the way in his battle to regain the England number one shirt.

The Pompey stopper said: "Whoever is out there for England, we do what we can to make sure they are at their best so that we win.

"But ultimately everyone in the England squad wants to play, so between now and the next squad, I'll be trying to do what I can do to jog the manager's mind and hopefully get a shout. But I want that to be for me doing well and not at the expense of someone else not doing well."

England had looked the better side in the first 20 minutes of their first international action of the season.

And with Lampard going some way to silencing the Wembley boo boys, it seemed McClaren and his men were on course to make a winning start.

But following Robinson's mistake and Kuranyi's equaliser, the game turned and Germany stepped up a gear.

McClaren added: "In the first 20 minutes, until we let them back in the game we were excellent overall. We created chances and on another night would have tucked them away.

"That was an ideal game for us, tough and hard. I was delighted with the majority of the performance, we created chances. I was disappointed with the goals we conceded and disappointed that we didn't take more of the chances.

"We started the second half poorly and that's why we changed the front two. We livened things up and had a good spell but then we dipped again."

The England boss has also backed Michael Owen, who has played just 27 minutes for Newcastle United this season, to be match-sharp for next month's Euro 2008 qualifying double-header.

He said: "For Michael Owen that was his first start and against Germany at Wembley is a tough match to come into. In two or three weeks with games under his belt he will be sharper."

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