HOWARD Wilkinson either has a good sense of humour or a bad memory.

I refer to the following remarks made by the caretaker England manager within 24 hours of each other, either side of last Wednesday's goalless draw with Finland.

Before the match: "It's a question of making sure that all those hundreds of thousands of excuses that exist right now for the players aren't used. There are lots of excuses if we want to use them but having the pride to pick yourself up and confront the problem are the things that we want out of the team."

After the match: "A win tonight would have been a great three points in what were terrible conditions. But the pitch wasn't too good and the wind made it hard to play football."