Gary Newbon: I’m backing Gareth Southgate to turn Three Lions’ fortunes around

England's goalless draw against Slovenia on Tuesday night saw them progress to the Euro 24 knock-out stage this weekend.

Let me get this right: England’s performances so far have been poor and well below the huge expectations of an intolerant football nation. But also let you get this right: England are unbeaten, have conceded just one goal and top their group.

Group matches are about qualifying. England has previous of starting poorly but improving quickly.

These players are good and the manager Gareth Southgate has done well for England with only Sir Alf Ramsey topping his record of semi-final and winning final. He knows where he and his players have not got it right and I trust him to get it right.

The fear factor has to be eliminated if England are to win the Euros. There are too many good teams like Germany and Spain.

At their best, England are a match for them all but up to now they are nowhere near that. One small excuse was that dreadful pitch in Frankfurt for their game against Denmark. No one seemed to mention that. Our top Premier League players normally play on perfect surfaces.

As England top the group they will play the best third placed team from one of Group D, E and F. That will be on Sunday in Gelsenkirchen at 5pm (ITV have first pick on round of 16)

But the message to England is clear: change the approach play to your potential and WIN.

England’s captain Kane has had a go at BBC’s Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer for their severe criticism. Funny that. Those two former England strikers like all players were sensitive to being slagged off when they played! Then they turn pundits and dish it out. Was always thus – I know from experience!

Meanwhile, England cricketers have recovered from a poor start to show their footballing counterparts the way. Defending their Twenty20 World Cup, they were lucky when rain appeared to rescue them against Scotland before losing to Australia. But they recovered to reach the Super Eight stage which consists of eight teams with the top two making the semi-finals.

England were the first to make the semis by beating USA by ten wickets in only 9.4 overs. Chris Jordan finished off the USA who made 115 with four wickets in five balls including a hat-trick. The two spin bowlers Adil Rashid (two wickets for 13 runs) and Liam Livingstone (one for 24) earlier built the platform.

England’s captain Jos Buttler then hit an unbeaten 83 in 38 balls to lead his side to an easy win. His opening partner Phil Salt weighed in with an unbeaten 25.

England will now play their semi-final against India in Guyana on Thursday – the latter is at 10.30am local time start to suit Indian TV!

This was the USA’s first World Cup and they started the tournament well with a win over Pakistan. It will certainly help the development of the game in the USA but on Sunday they came up against the REAL form of England. Let us hope our footballers can now emulate our white-ball cricketers.

I wrote England off before the start. I may have to rethink that!

Back to the Euros and Scotland sadly have been eliminated at the end of their Group B stage finishing bottom with only one point. On Sunday evening they lost to Hungary 1-0 in the final and 10th minute of stoppage time.

This was Scotland’s 12th major tournament and they have NEVER progressed beyond the Group stage.

It is the same old sad story but they were robbed by the lack of VAR involvement!

The Scots should have had a definite penalty near the end of normal playing time but the Argentine ref (the only non-European official) waved play on. The assistant referee had a perfect view but did nothing and VAR should have advised the ref. All the fuss about VAR and this time it failed the Scots! But to be fair, the Scots are not good enough – particularly up front when it comes to scoring.

Meanwhile, Wimbledon fortnight begins on Monday. The tennis tournament is one of the British sports highlights. We have just had Royal Ascot, the Euros are in full swing and the Olympics are just round the corner. Let’s hope this good weather lasts. We have waited long enough for the sun!