Alan Shearer wants the critics to judge England when the action starts for real at Euro 2000. Shearer and his team-mates produced an unconvincing finale to the series of warm-up internationals when they needed a last-gasp penalty save from new cap Richard Wright to earn a 2-1 win in Malta on Saturday.
But Shearer has seen England struggle to set the world on fire before in pre-tournament matches, and then go on to make a big impact when it counts. Shearer, who played down fears about the slight knee injury suffered against Malta, said: “In an ideal world we would have liked to finish the warm-up schedule with a good performance and six or seven goals. But it certainly won't knock our confidence for what's to come in Euro 2000. That's the most important thing and that's what these games have been working towards. We just want to get going now. We've had just over a week together and overall things have gone reasonably well. We want to get out there and get on with Euro 2000. We should be judged on how we perform then.”
