IT wasn't pretty but England did what they had to do.

There was precious little sign of the heroics produced against Argentina but the result was all that mattered today.

Nigeria were always going to be dangerous because they had nothing to gain while England had everything to lose. It produced the open game we were expecting and every chance for England to get the win they wanted to give them the kind of draw to the semi-finals they would choose if they had the chance.

But England have problems scoring and that is the biggest threat to our hopes of a successful World Cup. We have only scored two goals and they were from a centre half and a penalty.

Both Michael Owen and Emile Heskey played well but apart from one great run from Owen neither showed the cutting edge we needed to seriously threaten.

However, this game was firstly about getting a point and secondly about winning to get the draw we wanted and England did a thoroughly professional job to achieve the primary objective.

Nigeria had as much possession as England. They created a number of potentially hairy moments but another masterful show from Rio Ferdinand nipped the danger in the bud.

England did not help themselves in the first half when they defended far too deeply but the less said about the first half midfield performance the better . After the break the engine room began to motor and England took control. Nobody shone in the middle like they did against Argentina but this wasn't that kind of game and England deserve credit for getting the job done.