England travel to the Stadion Narodowy on Tuesday in what will be a much sterner test of their qualification ambitions against their perennial qualifying opponents, Poland.

England are the favourites at Evens with Stan James, who also offer the best price on a Poland win, at 7/2. A point, which is not the worst result in the world for England, is available at 53/21 with Pinnacle, whose unique selling point as a bookmaker seems to be offering odds that you can’t immediately compare against other bookmakers.

The Match against San Marino on Friday was a hiding to nothing for the England & Hogdson. All the pre-match build up was about the part-time nature of their opponents, that goal by Davide Gualtieri against us in 1993, and when Clive Tyldesley started commenting it must have taken all of his willpower to not go up to them and ruffle their hair, the way he was patronising them. San Marino flooded the defence, and when it was still goal-less at the 30 minute mark Tyldesley was almost apoplectic with rage – how could San Marino have the temerity to not roll over and die?

The 5-0 win for England was functional more than emphatic, but England’s form is pretty impressive at present, with only one defeat in 90 minutes in the last couple of years, and that was the bizarre ending to the Holland game last year. In the qualifying campaign so far they have two 5-0 wins already, and a draw against Ukraine. Poland are in surprisingly good form at present as well, with only one defeat in their last 12. They have won one and drawn one so far in the qualifying campaign.

England at Evens represents good value. They will welcome back Gerrard, Defoe and Cole to the Fray, and Poland are missing both Arsenal Keepers in Szczesny and Fabianski, and playmaker, captain and all round commentators nightmare Jakub Blaszczykowski through injury. England should win, but it won’t be easy for them, and England may start off quite slowly. You can get the time of first goal being after 27 minutes at evens, which we like the look of, but perhaps England winning 1-0 at half time @ 11/4 with Paddy Power offers better value. Expect England to then finish the game off late in the second half, winning by exactly two goals (11/2, Paddy Power)

In terms of who’s going to get the goals, the good news is that Defoe should replace Welbeck up front (i’m really not a Welbeck fan…) Rooney however is still the main man, and Lampard’s absence means that Rooney will also be on free kick and penalty duty, and therefore 5/1 first goal scorer represents value. One for the notebook: Paddy Power will refund all the usual markets if Rooney scores last.

Poland vs England Tips

England to win @ Evens (Paddy Power)

HT Score 1-0 England @ 11/4 (Paddy Power)

England to win by exactly 2 goals @ 11/2 (Paddy Power)

Rooney to score first @ 5/1 (Bet Victor)

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