Terry Butcher: Not pretty.. but Sven's real test is still to come 6

I'M NOT of a mind to slaughter England for their performance against Austria - or to crucify David Beckham for becoming the first England player to be sent off twice.

Beckham's dismissal was dismal, to be honest. If anything he was guilty of leaving himself in a vulnerable situation on the edge of his own area and going in for a tackle that he was never going to make.

The way Andreas Ibertsberger went crashing down to the ground, you would have though he had been taken out by a sniper in the crowd.

It was a joke. My wife Rita has hit me harder than that, and if you look at the offences that have led to both Beckham's yellow cards, they amount to nothing more than hitting a player with his wife's Gucci handbag.

I'm sure some people will slaughter the England captain, but in his defence it has not been an easy week for him, following the illness of his son and the intolerable pressure England were under going into this game.

I said before that this was not about collective or individual performances - it was about gaining three points and ensuring we closed in on qualification.

A polished performance it wasn't, and it will do nothing to allay the fears of the fans that England will struggle to compete with the world's strongest teams next summer.

This was not a performance to vindicate what happened in Belfast against Northern Ireland, or the disastrous form they showed in the preceding games against Wales and the friendly in Denmark.

But I felt Sven Goran Eriksson got his tactics right this time, and with more luck England could have gone in for the break more goals to the good.

I was surprised by the omission of Rio Ferdinand, but Eriksson has to call it as he sees it - after all, that is why he's paid pounds 5m a year.

I have no doubt the fans will be more pleased with the three points than with the performance, and until England really prove themselves with a polished display over 90 minutes, reservations will remain.

Obviously a Polish side who have won all their games away from home and scored 26 goals in qualifying will fancy their chances against England. Whether their confidence is justified is another matter.

I expected England to be nervous against a resolute and defiant Austrian defence. Victory was never going to be easily attained.

Both Poland and England will be desperate to top Group Six, and it makes for a fascinating showdown on Wednesday night.

England have hit back in the face of adversity in the past, and if they can beat the Poles - and beat them convincingly - in four days' time it will undoubtedly allay fears that Eriksson's men are heading to the World Cup just to make up the numbers.

We shouldn't be too quick to judge them, though.

The squad that qualifies is invariably different from the squad that actually goes to the World Cup.

Let us not forget that England were missing three key players in Gary Neville, Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney, who in my book will be certain starters when the World Cup begins.

We still have the ability to compete, but only time will tell if this England team are to rewrite the history books and justify all the hype that will undoubtedly follow them to Germany.

I still feel there is a lot of work to be done before England can say they are capable of lifting the trophy.

Eriksson may well be given a reprieve now that qualification is attained, but his biggest test is ahead of him.

In his previous two major international tournaments we have only reached the quarter-final stage and his tactics have come under justifiable scrutiny.

I have no doubt that, win or lose, he is likely to stand down from his post at the end of the tournament next summer - but whether he limps out of FA headquarters or leaves in glory is another matter entirely.

People go on about his record in qualification, but he's paid to bring success.

The FA have backed him to the hilt throughout his reign - it's still too early to predict whether they will be proved right.

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