England suffer unexpected stumble on road to Qatar before young crowd

Child’s play? Anything but. England had toyed with Hungary amid the most unpleasant circumstances in September and might have expected a repeat in front of more than 30,000 energised youngsters. But a highly unusual setting brought what, by recent standards, was a thoroughly singular outcome: a no-show from Gareth Southgate’s players and a ripple in what had been a largely smooth path to Qatar.

England went through the motions, as players facing four games in the immediate aftermath of an unforgiving domestic season might. Their opponents strained harder across all departments.

In the matchday programme, the section dedicated to Hungary’s visitors was adorned with mini profiles of English national treasures. The list may not have constituted a fantasy dinner party lineup but contained something for everyone: Michael Owen; Sir Alf Ramsey; Howard Webb; the Queen; the singer Alfie Templeman; fish and chips. At full time it was tempting to suggest their boys had taken one hell of a beating, if not a battering, although the latter might have been close if Andras Schafer had doubled the margin of victory with a sitter.

England had never played to such a shrill, youthful and multicoloured backdrop. A more familiar sight at Hungary’s home games is the black-clad mass of ultras behind the goal, named the Carpathian Brigade, whose misdemeanours during Euro 2020 brought this game’s staging under special measures. This time pockets of minors wearing lime green, yellow, blue, whatever stripe represented their school or club, occupied those spots along with their accompanying adults.

Any sense of menace was dialled down close to zero, the scenes outside resembling arrangements for a summer camp rather than a fixture with unsavoury