England 1, Germany 2.

SEVEN years ago, Kevin Keegan famously admitted that he was "not good enough" to manage England after Germany became the last side to win an international at the old Wembley stadium.

There were no such statements from Steve McClaren last night, as England's bitterest of enemies also became the first international side to run out victors at the nation's new footballing home.

But for the vast majority of England fans, the conclusion will have been pretty much the same. Twelve months after replacing Sven-Goran Eriksson, McClaren's inadequacies are being repeatedly exposed.

The former Middlesbrough manager has now failed to win seven of his 12 games as England boss and, with his side's hopes of qualifying for next summer's European Championships hanging in the balance, last night's latest reverse means he is surely just one more defeat away from the sack.

True, a friendly defeat will count for nothing if McClaren guides his side to five wins out of five in their remaining qualifying games. Age-old rivalries mean a lot when it comes to football, however - the boos that greeted Gordon Brown's presence at an England game were evidence of that - and a home defeat to Germany will hardly count in his favour if things do not go according to plan in the next two months.

The build up to last night's game might have been dominated by tales of an escalating injury crisis, but McClaren's starting line-up still included seven players who the England coach would surely term first choice.

Only Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney were missing from the nation's strongest side, although how many of last night's starters are worthy of a guaranteed starting spot now is open to debate.

Paul Robinson certainly isn't, and the clanger that handed Kevin Kuranyi Germany's opener on a plate could well have ended the Tottenham goalkeeper's run as England's undisputed number one.

Rio Ferdinand's place is under similar threat after the Manchester United centre-half was at fault for Christian Pander's 40th-minute match-winner, even if the absence of the retired Jamie Carragher and the injured Jonathan Woodgate is likely to keep him in the side for next month's qualifiers with Israel and Russia.

Similarly, Michael Owen and Alan Smith are likely to be re-united in the absence of both the injured Wayne Rooney and the suspended Peter Crouch, even though England were at their most threatening when the duo departed together in the 57th minute of last night's game.

Their partnership is a feather in the cap of Newcastle United, the duo forming the first all-Newcastle strike pairing since Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand played together in February 1997. But it is hardly a relationship that guarantees goals.

Neither Owen nor Smith has scored a Premier League goal since December 2005 and, while the former twice went close before the break after positive approach play from his partner, their alliance is a matter of necessity rather than choice.

Indeed, it says much that, for the majority of last night's game, the home side's likeliest goalscorer was the under-fire Frank Lampard.

The Chelsea midfielder was clearly upset by the boos that accompanied his only previous England outing at the new Wembley, but he successfully set about rebuilding his relationship in the opening ten minutes.

Lampard's 13th goal for his country owed much to the pace and athleticism of Micah Richards, with the teenage full-back enhancing his burgeoning reputation even further by skipping past Pander during a forward foray that was to be repeated extensively throughout the night.

Richards' delicate through ball allowed Lampard to close in on goal, but there was still much to admire in the venomous shot that the midfielder whistled past German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. Whatever else he might not do in an England shirt, it is impossible to question Lampard's ability to make telling bursts into the box.

Ironically, Lehmann went into last night's game under pressure following two high-profile gaffes in Arsenal's opening Premier League matches. How he must have laughed, then, when Robinson decided to outdo him midway through the opening period.

Robinson is hardly a stranger to mishaps himself, of course, following last October's air kick in Croatia. His latest howler was not quite as embarrassing, but with Portsmouth's David James returning from international exile to replace him at the start of the second half, it could already have had more far-reaching repercussions.

Bernd Schneider's right-wing cross looked innocuous when it left his boot, but it quickly had an out-of-position Robinson scrambling back towards his goalmouth. The Spurs keeper managed to claw the ball out from under his crossbar, only for an unmarked Kuranyi to tap home the rebound.

With the hosts failing to exert any kind of dominance in the central third, Germany's midfielders increasingly found themselves with time and space in which to play.

And they duly punished England further by taking the lead four minutes before the interval. Robinson was not at fault this time, with Pander's 25-yard strike arcing into the top right-hand corner after the full-back ambled onto Phillip Lahm's pass. Quite why Ferdinand refused to close the defender down, though, was hard to ascertain.

Germany's defending was equally poor at times, and England might have been level at the break had Owen not displayed inevitable signs of ring-rust.

First, the 27-year-old directed a diving header too close to Lehmann, then he lashed into the side netting from no more than six yards after the goalkeeper had palmed a loose ball into his path.

At least Owen had an excuse for his failings, something that could not be said of substitute Kieron Dyer when he was even more wasteful late on when teed up by a pinpoint right-wing cross from David Beckham.