Steve McClaren has been sacked as England manager.

McClaren refused to resign in the aftermath of last night's Euro 2008 disaster - but he admitted England had let the nation down.

But a Football Association Board meeting at 8.30am this morning took just 20 minutes to deliver its verdict - that McLaren had to go after just 18 games in charge, making it the the shortest tenure of any coach in the post.

McClaren avoided the inevitable questions about his future following the 3-2 defeat to Croatia, which condemned England to miss next summer's European Championships, but he said enough to suggest he knew already his fate.

''It is an indescribable pain,'' he said.

''There is so much expectation, both from the fans in the stadium and the people watching on TV at home.

''We have let them down. We know what they are feeling - we are feeling exactly the same.

''I take responsibility. Ultimately, I said judge me over 12 games. We deserve to be where we finish and we have not deserved to qualify.

"That is my responsibility.

''There were so many high hopes among the nation and the fans and we have failed to qualify,'' reflected McClaren. ''We have not delivered.

''Before the game, it was unthinkable we would concede three goals at home.

''Mistakes cost us and the start cost us. It was always going to be difficult after that.

''We knew we would have to take risks but Croatia looked like scoring every time they went forward. That is the disappointment for me. I thought we would be harder to beat.'' However, McClaren said he did not regret picking Carson instead of Paul Robinson, even though the 22-year-old's complete failure to get behind Nico Kranjcer's speculative 25-yard effort set the tone for one of the worst nights in recent England history.

''I don't think it was a mistake to play Scott,'' he said. ''I thought he was ready and I stick by that. The conditions were difficult and the ball took a wicked dip.

''He made a fantastic save to keep us in the game at the start of the second half.

"Ultimately, on a pitch like that there was going to be mistakes. We made too many.''

McClaren was contracted up to the World Cup in 2010 - but he will not be seeing out the remaining 33 months of his contract after England's first failure to qualify for the finals of a major tournament since 1994.