ROY Hodgson last night expressed his satisfaction with England's tame 1-1 draw with Republic of Ireland, but admitted his side is suffering from a lack of fire power that could jeopardise their chances of qualifying for the World Cup finals this autumn.

Frank Lampard's 23rd-minute strike cancelled out Shane Long's looped header and maintained England's record of not having lost a home game to Ireland since 1949.

However, the hosts struggled to carve out chances on a night that saw them lose Daniel Sturridge to an ankle injury that will rule him out of Sunday's trip to Brazil and potentially jeopardise his involvement in the start of next season.

Andy Carroll is also set to miss the opening weeks of the new campaign, and with Danny Welbeck and Steven Gerrard also currently unavailable, England's lack of a goal threat is glaringly apparent.

“We'll just have to accept we have a lot of forwards that are not available to us,” said Hodgson, whose side trail Montenegro by two points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining. “We'll just have to hope those forward players are available in September and October.

“Sturridge is the latest player to be injured, and losing him was a major blow. He had started the game very well, and had we played the second half with Sturridge in top form, I think we would have created even more chances.

“I don't want to say it's a serious injury, but it's an injury that will keep him out for a period of time. We don't think anything is broken, but the doctors will have to speak to the people at Liverpool.”

Sturridge provided the cross for Lampard's equaliser, but the move proved a rare threatening moment on a night when England struggled to break down an Irish side who are currently fourth in their World Cup qualifying pool.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott drilled decent second-half chances into the legs of Irish goalkeeper, David Forde, but there was a lack of creativity and cohesion to much of England's play that was redolent of some of their other lacklustre recent displays.

Nevertheless, Hodgson was reasonably satisfied with his side's performance, even though they have now failed to win three of their last six home games.

“I thought we played well enough, especially in the second half,” said the England boss. “The quality of the play was good, but we must give the Irish team a lot of credit. They were very competitive and worked very hard from the front of their team through to the back.

“They made us work very hard for our goal chances, and when we created two or three really clear chances, their goalkeeper made good saves.

“I'm disappointed with the result because it would have been nice to sign off with a win. There were two or three times when I thought a victory was going to come our way, but I can't be too disappointed with the way we tried to win the game.”

Prior to kick-off, there were fears there could be a repeat of the crowd violence that forced the abandonment of a friendly between the two sides in 1995. Hodgson had urged England supporters not to sing anti-IRA songs, and while there was a brief airing of “No surrender” during the national anthem, the evening passed off without incident.

“I thought both sets of fans were magnificent, and I'm delighted about that,” said Hodgson. “It seems like every time I'm involved in a fixture, something is dredged up from the past to give everything a negative air.

“Thankfully, there was nothing of that at all. Both sets of fans were vocal, but both sets of fans behaved very well. We felt we had the crowd behind us. The Irish were fewer in numbers, but they made their voices heard as well.”