ENGLAND 0 ALGERIA 0:AND SUDDENLY the England football team finds itself in Cape Fear. Something nightmarish is stalking Fabio Capello's men now.

They left the field to the sound of boos from their countrymen and despite the caustic observations of Wayne Rooney, the disenchantment was understandable.

A weekend inquisition and a tense preparation to a defining match against Slovenia now lie ahead of the golden generation following this abject display against Algeria. They promised that it would be different than it had been against the United States. It was. It was worse.

Watching England might be the best way for France to feel good about themselves again. This was an evening that left England’s aspirations of claiming the World Cup look like fantasy.

Graham Taylor, a scapegoat of England past, voiced an opinion on a radio broadcast last night that there was trouble in the camp. Fabio Capello shook his head when the allegation was put to him.

“This is incredible. I think that we have the best training camp. That is not the problem. I hope to see the England team on Wednesday. This is not the England that I know. These players going to training – I remember when I start to be an England manager I saw the same things in Wembley. But the next game we forget to play with fear. Because it is incredible the mistakes of players – controlling the ball – for the level of the England players. Probably it is the pressure that is so big that the performance is not so good.”

That was true. From the earliest exchanges there were clear omens that this tournament could degenerate into England’s winter of discontent. For the first half hour, the attitude of the team looked uncertain and occasionally petrified.

David James – who had a solid match – sent a few hearts into mouths when he elected to punch clear a cross sent by Boudebouz which Karim Matmour challenged for in the ninth minute.

It was an early indication that the repercussions of Robert Green’s mistake was still playing on the minds of England’s rearguard. Further nerves were revealed – a lunging intervention by Jamie Carragher sent the ball skidding into James’s arms but it might have gone anywhere.

The big ideas – sending Gerrard to the left and installing Gareth Barry at midfield – changed nothing. Once again, England’s midfield failed in the elementary duty of getting the football to the feet of Wayne Rooney. The United man was left to chase scraps.

The Algerians pushed up on the England attack and smothered Rooney whenever the ball was played towards him, forcing him further back the field in pursuit of possession. Aaron Lennon once again offered a spark of creativity along England’s right wing, delivering a pass for a Frank Lampard shot which Rais Bolhi gathered securely.

Gerrard, too, got a shot on target. But it was a desperately ordinary football from the Englishmen. This was supposed to be an evening of atonement for their laboured beginning against the USA, a night when they offered some evidence that they can justifiably include themselves among the elite teams here in South Africa.

For too long, Algeria looked as if they belonged in their company. Capello cut a disconsolate figure at half time.

Thoughts of Theo Walcott may have flashed through his mind. The slow grind continued. England’s best chance of scoring looked to be when the Algerians grew complacent in passing the ball out of defence, gifting a ball to Lennon, whose cross was taken from Rooney’s head by Yahia in the 61st minute.

By now things had grown chronic for England. Jamie Carragher was booked for blocking Yebda, who had skipped past him without a second thought. Carragher will miss England’s next match against Slovenia. Shaun Wright Phillips replaced Lennon and seconds later John Terry struck what might have been a catastrophic back pass but for the alertness of James, who hoofed clear from Matmoor.

England pressed on, creating half chances in broken play – Gerrard rose to head straight at Bolhi in the 69th minute just after the labouring Heskey punted a cross that fell the wrong side of the bar. But the ease with which the Algerians played football through the white ranks was a rebuke to the myth of the Premier League – or at least its English contingent. If Rooney was playing in the green (of Algeria) they might have won this match. But the Africans had no cutting edge up front.

Here, England held the edge despite their criminal failure to use it.

In the 88th minute, a chorus of boos drowned out the vuvuzelas following a lame Frank Lampard shot which troubled only the ball boy. Three minutes into injury time, England manufactured a corner but Gerrard’s delivery clattered off Peter Crouch and sailed harmlessly into the night. By then, the game was up. You could see it in the frustration written all over Rooney’s face.

“Rooney was not Rooney,” Capello admitted.

“But he is not the problem.” High up in the stands you could see it too in the dead way the Englishmen moved about the field in the final seconds. Already, the ghosts of 1966 are gathering about them.