Keegan puts his future in England

Kevin Keegan announced last night that he will take the England job on a full-time basis. Keegan still has to iron out the full details with the English Football Association but wants to retain some role at Fulham, although it is unlikely to be as manager.

But Keegan has made his mind up following weeks of speculation that he will continue to work with England full-time after his initial short-term reign ends in June.

After his side drew 1-1 in Budapest last night Keegan said: "I will definitely take the job."

He had initially said when he took up a part-time post that he would only lead England for the agreed term of four games until early June before returning to Fulham.

But as the weeks have gone by, his stance has gradually changed and he now finds himself in the situation where he is simply unable to turn down the chance he always dreamed of to manage England full-time.

How he is able to still retain some interest in Fulham, whom he has just guided into Division One and remain faithful to the 15 months or so remaining on his contract there, still remains to be discussed with club chairman Mohamed Al Fayed.

But there is now no question that Keegan has committed his long-term future to managing England. Keegan said: "I've said I'm definitely going to take the job. We've got to stop messing around. I've needed time to think about it and weigh it up but the more I've worked with the players, the more I've wanted to do it.

"The time I need is to do it right by Fulham Football Club, who have been fantastic to me. The board at Fulham and Mr Fayed know all about it. I had talks with the FA last week. They said they wanted me to take the job and I said `put an offer to me'.

Before Keegan announced his decision, David Davies, the FA's interim executive director, said that he hoped to reach a final agreement with Keegan "over the next few days and weeks".

At the Nepstadion in Budapest last night Keegan's patchwork team stitched together a passable draw to preserve his unbeaten record in his second match in charge.

Although England's starting line-up showed six changes from their European Championship qualifier against Poland and two players, Wes Brown and Kevin Phillips, were winning their first caps, it was not as inexperienced as the abundance of alterations might have suggested.

England got off to an encouraging start when they took the lead after 21 minutes, scoring with an Alan Shearer penalty.

But they were hardly infiltrating their opponents' half and a Hungary equaliser looked increasingly likely. It arrived on 72 minutes and what a stunning strike it was. Hungary's Pal Dardai broke forward and was upended by Carragher 25 yards out.

The central defender Janos Hrutka lined up the free-kick and despite slipping on the point of impact fired a blistering shot past Seaman into the top right corner. It was no more than they deserved.

Hungary: Kiraly, Hrutka, Korsas (Toth 65), Matyus, Sebok, Halmai, Dombi, Dardai, Pisont (Somogyi 45), Illis, Kosos. Subs Not Used: Babos, Egressy, Feher, Dragoner. Goal: Hrutka 76.

England: Seaman, Brown (Gray 74), Neville, Batty, Ferdinand (Carragher 62), Keown, Butt, Sherwood, Shearer, Phillips (Heskey 83), McManaman (Redknapp 85). Subs Not Used: Martyn, Lampard, Ball, Jeffers. Goal: Shearer 21 pen.

Referee: L Frohlich (Germany).