Hodgson insists he was happy to take a point from Poland

Roy Hodgson insists he was pleased to pick up a point as England drew 1-1 in Poland.

Re-scheduled after heavy rain flooded the pitch on Tuesday, England started off well, taking the lead thanks to a Wayne Rooney first-half header, however the home side clawed back with Karim Glik on target to salvage a draw.

“I am pleased we didn’t lose the game, and not one of our better performances and maybe we underestimated the fact of us to staying an extra night,” said Hodgson after the game.

“The pitch was a little sodden, although they – the Polish FA, have done very well to get it as playable as it was but there was no way we were as sharp as I thought we were going to be yesterday evening.

“So I think we have to be satisfied, we showed the right qualities, we dug in and we made it difficult for them to beat us and we come away from Poland with a points in our baggage.

“I think that could be a very important point at the end of the day as Poland are no pushovers, we are not talking about a minor nation, we are talking about a competitor for one of two places in our group, we just have to make certain we play better I the game against them at home get the three points and keep them behind us.”

On Rooney’s second-half substitution for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Hodgson added: “I don’t think Wayne was having one of his better days.

“It was a tiring pitch and we had Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench, who we think is a very exciting young player and funnily enough I thought after they scored we played one of our better spells in the game.

“Alex was nice and lively and I think towards the end we were maybe closer to a 2-1 victory than they were.

“We gave the ball away quite a lot of times but so did the Polish team. I think you can excuse players to some extent because of the surface but we are the first to admit it wasn’t one of our better performances.

“We got a result from the game and showed the necessary character. It gives me great heart for the future that we are unbeaten in 11 games and even when things aren’t going great for us, we get something out of the game.”