England will definitely qualify for the European Championship finals - but I would play James Beattie every time.

It was a fantastic result in Macedonia on Saturday evening and you have to give Sven Goran Eriksson credit for making the changes that were necessary at half time.

But why did he not play with three strikers from the start? The front three pf Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey were a handful but, if they had all played from the start, we would not have been sitting on the edge of our seats for most of the game.

Heskey did well when he came on but I would play Beattie ahead of him every day of the week. Sven is being loyal to Heskey but Beattie is the best player of his type since Alan Shearer.

He's an old fashioned striker, you don't look to knock the ball over the top to him, you try to use his strengths at holding the ball up and bringing other people into play and we could have done with that from the satrt.

Instead, we had a first half that was like cat and mouse and a goal for Macedonia that resulted from a catalogue of England errors.

It was even worse than Macedonia's first goal at St Mary's in October. At least then only one player, David Seaman, was at fault.

On Saturday there were several. Sol Campbell made the wrong decision, he should have cleared the ball quite easily, but Gary Neville played them on side in the first place and David James was also to blame.

They are all supposed to be top class players. It was not good enough - it was mistake after mistake.

It amazes me how England continue to dig holes for themselves but they still came away with a fantastic result.

Wayne Rooney was very positive after the break. He scored a terrific goal.

And David Beckham was man of the match. He produced the goods when he was needed but I expected them to beat Macedonia who are an ordinary side, comfortably.

The first half was as poor a 45 mnutes as I've seen from an England side but at least going a goal down forced Sven's hand. You have to give him credit for making the changes.

Beattie will have to be patient and be prepared to sit on the bench, however.

It is very difficult for England not to qualify for the finals in Portugal now. I expect them to roll over Liechtenstein on Wednesday and pick up a point in what will be a very difficult game in Turkey next month.

But if they don't they still have the play-offs to fall back on - all the rules are there to give the big guns every chance.