For now.

A glance at England's Euro 2008 group shows England has a lot to worry about over the winter before resuming its qualifying campaign in late March.

Just minutes before Rooney's goal in Amsterdam helped England to a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands in Wednesday's friendly, England had slipped to third in Group E after Croatia won 4-3 at Israel and Russia beat Macedonia 2-0.

Things would have been worse if the Israelis had fought back for a 4-4 tie. That would have pushed England down to fourth in the seven-team group.

Instead, McClaren's team is now three points behind Croatia and one behind Russia and level on points with Macedonia and Israel. With only two teams advancing to the 2008 championship, England is now in real danger of missing out.

McClaren's team has already lost 2-0 to Croatia and still has to face Russia and Israel twice each.

Even though England has now gone three matches without a victory and dropped five unexpected points in Euro qualifying, McClaren puts a positive spin on the remaining group games, starting with a visit to Israel on March 24.

``We are three points behind Croatia but we still have to play them at home, while Russia are one point ahead and we have to play them twice,'' said McClaren, who started his spell in charge of England with three shutout victories but has failed to win the last three.

``I don't think this group will start until there are three or four games to go and I believe it will go down to the wire. I never thought it would be a breeze for anyone. Whoever thought that was silly. But it is up to us and I still say we are in a very good position.''

The media and England fans may not see it that way, especially with the way England is now struggling to win games.

With McClaren and assistant coach Terry Venables tinkering with the formation and lineup game by game, England was held 0-0 at home by Macedonia, lost to the Croats and then surrendered the lead in the last four minutes against a Dutch side which had plenty of possession but looked poor in front of goal.

With Rooney returning to form and scoring for the first since England's 3-2 victory over Argentina in Geneva a year ago, England showed an overall improvement on the tame loss in Zagreb which had critics saying he was the wrong choice to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson.

``I am not bothered about the criticism,'' he said after the draw in Amsterdam. ``All I am bothered about is the team, the performance and the result.

``What other people say about me is not a concern. My only concern is this job, ensuring England perform like they did last night and win football matches.''

The England players say he has their full support.

``We all believe in Steve McClaren and he believes in us so we have to move forward,'' said Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard. ``Being the England manager, he will always get criticism, especially after the negative result.

``To come to Holland and play like we did, being only a few minutes away from winning against a top side, really speaks volumes for the team and we can take heart from that.''

Lampard said the England players would now have to concentrate on playing for their clubs before they can think about the game in Israel. He said England had improved in performance despite slipping down the group standings.

``Here we showed we are edging more towards top form,'' he said. ``We can get better, we will get better and we will be better for the Israel game.''