[horsa]

England tried to stop the Australian bulldozer with a pea shooter and lost, they could not even defend the ashes if they tried.

Come on , they could do with a bit more support than that. Dismissive generalisations sound great for crowd pleasing, but they don't do justice to the likes of Collingwood, Pietersen, Panesar, Hoggard and various others. The balance between winning and losing is a very fine one and in this case it was badly upset by several factors including some bad selection, muddled preparation, untimely absences and injuries, and a very strong Australian team, on song, and playing in their own back yard.

Talk of “sack Fletcher” doesn’t solve anything either . He is still a very fine coach that England could do well to hang on to. Yes he has made mistakes, particularly with selection ( not his prime role) and arguably the preparation, but he has also had to oversee a damaging succession of disruptions which included the loss of its Ashes winning captain.