England manager Roy Hodgson has said that he was relieved to see Frank Lampard equalise against Ukraine last night.
After going a goal down, Lampard's penalty drew the hosts level late on in the game before captain Steven Gerrard was sent off for a second bookable offence.
At the start of the game a draw may not have been an acceptable result in the eyes of some fans, but Hodgson insists that the late equaliser capped a good result for the Three Lions.
"You are always relieved when you are losing 1-0 and you get a late equaliser. I suppose all games you don't win at home people say it's not a great performance but I didn't think we did that badly," said Hodgson. "We kept at our task. We started poorly in the first 10 minutes but once we got into our stride we had quite good control of the game.
"We went one down to a wonder strike and from then on against a good Ukrainian team you are always going to be up against it but I was pleased with the way we kept playing our football, taking the game to them and creating chances.
"In the end we fully deserved our equaliser so I suppose I'll dodge the question whether it was a good performance or whatever and say that I was very pleased with the way the players went about their task."
England remain unbeaten in World Cup qualification.
Matt Cotton
