We awake today, as we do most days, to the sound of an outraged, whining Scouser. FA chief executive Brian Barkwick, "Alan Smith was given an opportunity to play for England and chose to play elsewhere. It's not probably the cleverest thing he's done.
"I never got the opportunity to play for England, so turning down the opportunity is perhaps disappointing. I think Sven wanted him in the squad and Alan wanted to get some football in his legs. Sven will pick the next squad and the next squad, so he'll have plenty of opportunity to either pick Alan Smith again or not," he bleated.
The stiffs beat Notlob 3-0, with Smith scoring once and Colin Heath netting the other two. Wes Brown, recovering from an Achilles injury, played for an hour.