England Vs. Ghana: Andy Carroll Goal Makes It 1-0 At Half Time

England’s defensive problems may yet come back to haunt them in this match but for now the home side has the lead against Ghana in Wembley Stadium thanks to a thumping finish from £35M Liverpool striker Andy Carroll. Unsurprisingly, both Stewart Downing and Ashley Young were involved, the latter picking out his club teammate’s run into the penalty box with a beautiful lobbed pass before Downing laid off the ball to an onrushing Carroll and held off John Mensah for long enough to allow the former Newcastle man to smash home past Richard Kingson for the opening goal. There was a hint of a foul in the way pushed off his defender, but the goal stood.

The half really should have seen more than just one goal, though. England’s defence could probably be best described as ‘comical’, while Phil Jagielka being particularly poor, while both Young and Downing have been terrorising Ghana’s fullbacks all match. Dominic Adiyiah has been denied by Joe Hart twice when he should have scored, and Young rattled Richard Kingson’s crossbar from inside the six yard box after an inch-perfect pass from James Milner left him with virtually an empty net.

Leighton Baines, meanwhile, is lucky to remain on the pitch after a two-footed lunge on Issac Vorsah reminiscent of Johnny Evans’ red-card tackle on American international Stu Holden two weeks ago - the referee didn’t even show the Everton left-back a card, probably because Vorsah’s attempt for the ball was also fairly dangerous looking. Fortunately, both players are ok, but that incident could have been fairly nasty.

All in all though, it’s been a very entertaining first half, with plenty of action to help us forget the absence of some of England’s big names. Ghana have been mostly quite good, but Gareth Barry, Jack Wilshere, and James Milner in particular have held firm in the centre of the pitch and allowed England to dominate play.