Scholes: Nil-all match was 'an end-of-season waste of space'

Former England midfielder Paul Scholes labelled the friendly stalemate between Ireland and England “a waste of an afternoon”.

The drab 0-0 draw at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium came 20 years after riots caused the abandonment of a Lansdowne Road clash between the teams.

There was no such trouble this time, yet there was also little action of note on the pitch to lift the occasion.

Scholes, analysing the fixture for ITV, said: “There was a real lack of quality and a waste of an afternoon. It was an end-of-season waste of space.”

England and the Republic have more important fixtures ahead, with Euro 2016 qualifiers against Slovenia and Scotland respectively to come in the week ahead.

England midfielder Jack Wilshere said: “The way we played, we know we’re better than that but we maybe blew the cobwebs off.”

Looking ahead to the Slovenia clash, Wilshere added: “It’ll be a difficult game but we have to be better.”

England manager Roy Hodgson said: “I thought we got better in the second half, but it was below what we were hoping to achieve.

“It’s never easy in Ireland, we don’t have a great record here but at least we go away with a clean sheet.”