Wednesday 12 October 2016 10:40, UK
England could only manage a goalless draw in Slovenia as they failed to win a competitive qualifier for the first time in more than three years.
Gareth Southgate's side had Joe Hart to thank for their point, with the goalkeeper making a series of impressive saves to keep England level.
Here, we pick out five of the talking points to emerge from the game...
England still so frail
"I think mentality is big in football," said new captain Jordan Henderson before the match. "Sometimes people think we are machines." There could be no mistaking the human frailties on show in Ljubljana as England's players - Henderson included - malfunctioned throughout. The mistakes were sloppy and the memories of Iceland remain raw.
Roy Hodgson endured that nasty night in Nice and even Sam Allardyce got a glimpse of the issues in his brief time in charge, noting the "nervous tension" that gripped his players against Slovakia. Now Southgate has seen first-hand that his best-laid schemes can go awry. It will take more than a 2-0 win over Malta to change that mentality.
Hart shows his class
Perhaps more players testing themselves abroad will help? There's long been a notion that England's best would benefit from stints on the continent, but a goalkeeper moving from Manchester City to Torino probably wasn't top of the list. Five games in Serie A won't have transformed Hart as a player but he was certainly the star man for his side on Tuesday.
The England No 1 had no right to keep a clean sheet. Twice he was exposed by bad back-passes - first by Eric Dier and then by Henderson - and twice he pulled off the save. His stops from consecutive corners were even more impressive, the second of which surely ranks among the best of his career.
With several conspicuous examples of leadership too, geeing up his team-mates during a stoppage and then calming an irate Jesse Lingard following a skirmish late on, the night was a triumph for Hart. He's been under scrutiny and pressure since Pep Guardiola decided to dispense with his services, but this was a welcome reminder of his abilities.
Rooney not to blame
Wayne Rooney, axed from the starting line-up despite being his country's captain, couldn't quite do that. However, this stuttering display should remind his fiercer critics that his removal from the team is no panacea. Rooney's struggle for form might mean he's no longer the solution, but the problems exist with or without him.
Southgate described the decision to drop Rooney as "very straightforward", citing the need for a change to "the profile of the midfield" in light of the "different tactical challenge" awaiting his team. It didn't really work, with Dier looking a little rusty having started only one game in midfield himself in the past six weeks.
At the other end of the field, Rooney's absence did not bring the kind of fluency that some might have anticipated. The wingers failed to get into the game and Dele Alli was unable to forge an effective partnership with Daniel Sturridge. England didn't even manage a shot on target until well into the second half.
Stones can be a star
It was the performance of a disjointed team. England struggled to get the ball through the lines against opponents who harried them incessantly, particularly early on. There was a conscious effort made to pass the ball out from the back, but only John Stones really demonstrated that he is comfortable adopting that approach.
There is still a tendency for him to overplay and an underhit header put Gary Cahill in trouble in the second half. But Stones completed 74 of his 78 passes and is improving. The young Manchester City defender was the only outfield player in the England squad not to get on the pitch at Euro 2016. He's now clearly England's best defender.
Struggle for Walcott
Theo Walcott missed out on Euro 2016 entirely but the winger didn't seize his chance quite so well. The 27-year-old has been in good form for Arsenal and spoke recently of a shift in his mentality, but there weren't enough signs of that in an England shirt. He made only 17 passes during his hour on the pitch, the fewest of anyone.
More disappointingly, when the chance came to run at the Slovenia defence after 40 minutes, Walcott instead attempted the early cross - scuffing a weak effort straight at the first man. His replacement Andros Townsend, a player who hadn't even been named in Southgate's original squad, showed far more positivity in half of the time.
Townsend has earned a reputation for being a player who raises his game for England. Perhaps it all comes down to that issue of mentality. In the wake of the much-discussed dropping of Rooney, that's a conundrum for Southgate to wrestle with in the knowledge that it's a problem facing England as a whole rather than any one individual.
