ENGLAND fell to perhaps their worst result in tournament history on Monday night as they were defeated 2-1 by Iceland, a country with a population smaller than Bristol.

The signs had been there during the group stage where England failed to see off a very poor Russia side, left it late to beat the Welsh, before running out of ideas of how to beat a dogged but low on quality Slovakia team in the final game.

Despite these results, performances had been ok and many observers felt that in the knock-out stages England would thrive as sides would have to come out of their shell.

Well, Iceland to their credit played with adventure on Monday and easily exposed England’s defensive deficiencies. Our defending for both goals, which came after England had taken the lead through a Rooney penalty, was rank amateur.

Going into the second period 2-1 down you’d have thought we’d have thrown the kitchen sink at Iceland, but instead we looked lacklustre and had no coherent plan b, or c. I wonder if Roy ever really had a plan a.

The 68 year old resigned straight after the game and cut a dejected figure in a press conference the day after.

He proved he was willing to experiment with his teams during his tenure and give young, in-form players a go. But ultimately his loyalty to certain players and not having a fixed game plan or even formation appeared to be his downfall. Picking players such as Wilshere who had been injured all season, Sterling who had been out-of-form all season and having Rooney as a guaranteed starter despite his poor form meaning Dele Ali was forced to play out of position were all strange calls.

Even on Monday, bringing Rashford on for only five minutes despite the player warming up and appearing to be ready to come on with 20 minutes to go was strange.

The fall-out from this will last a long time one suspects but the priority for England now is to find a new manager who can take the team forward and quickly erase the memory of Monday night's game.