England 0 Montenegro 0:ENGLAND'S DISPLAY was even more alarming than an outcome that leaves Montenegro ahead of them in the bid to qualify for Euro 2012.

Clear opportunities were few. The side yelled lustily for a penalty when the ball came off the chest and then arm of Milan Jovanovic in the 76th minute, but they whimpered when the left back’s drive beat Joe Hart and cracked against the crossbar six minutes later.

While the exasperating nature of supposed mismatches is well known, England could not deal with that factor and bring an edge to their play. The dismay was measured in four bookings, the last for the 33-year-old substitute Kevin Davies who was making his debut. Mladen Bozovic ultimately had to pull off saves, but this had not really been a siege.

There had been purpose and efficiency to three 1-0 wins that took these opponents to the head of the group and such a show of authority distracted attention from the sheer improbability of the results.

Montenegro, after all, is a country with a population of under 700,000. As if that were not a sufficient handicap, their outstanding talent, the Roma forward Mirko Vucinic, was ruled out with injury.

Twenty-two minutes had gone by before there was even a suggestion of a true threat to the Montenegro defence and when Wayne Rooney did enjoy the room to run the centre half Marko Basa halted him with a sound tackle.

• Guardian Service

ENGLAND:Hart, G Johnson, Ferdinand, Lescott, A Cole, A Johnson, Gerrard, Barry, Young (Wright-Phillips 74), Rooney, Crouch (Davies 69). Subs Not Used: Foster, Warnock, Cahill, Wilshere, Downing. Booked: Rooney, Young, Barry, Davies.

MONTENEGRO:Mladen Bozovic, Basa, Jovanovic, Djudovic, Savic, Vukcevic, Zverotic, Boskovic (Beciraj 82), Novakovic (Kascelan 62), Pekovic, Djalovic (Delibasic 77). Subs Not Used: Blazic, Batak, Tomasevic, Pejovic. Booked: Djudovic, Savic, Basa, Kascelan, Vukcevic.

Referee: M Grafe (Germany).

Att: 73,451