NEVER mind Michael Owen, David Beckham and Darius Vassell, English success or otherwise against Argentina will depend largely on Nicky Butt.

Argentina have one of the most frightening attacking midfields in the competition and England have one defensive midfielder in their squad - Butt.

The maths are simple. Play no stoppers in the middle of the park and Argentina will cut through England like a knife through butter. When you saw how easy a defensive team like Sweden walked through our four attack-minded middle men in Sunday's second half it is scary to think what one of the best attacking teams will do to us unless we stick someone in with the sole task of disrupting their play. Butt is hardly the greatest player in the world but he is the only one capable of doing a job we have to do if we are going to stay in the World Cup.

Meanwhile, full marks to Sven Goran Eriksson for telling his players off for not applauding their supporters at the end of the Sweden game.

Only David Seaman had the decency to clap the 7,000 Englishmen and many Japanese who shouted for England. The rest complained they felt too disappointed which begs the question how did they think the fans felt.

Teams rarely clap fans when they performance disappoints and that is exactly the time when the supporters deserve recognition.

Beckham today insisted it won't happen again and I'd like to see that pledge undertaken by all our professional footballers from now on.