Having suffered eight withdrawals from his squad to face Holland at the Amsterdam ArenA tomorrow evening, the England head coach did not have enough players to stage an eight-a-side practice match as his players assembled at Arsenal’s training ground in London Colney.

Enter Matthew Connolly, who happened to be on the site to train with Arsenal’s reserves but ended up with three lions on his chest and with the chance to train with Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney et al, albeit as a “ringer”, to use Sunday League parlance.