WHEN ENGLAND play at Wembley, post match debriefings are held in the stadium's Red Bar. No political significance should be attached to this, and certainly an incoming Prime Minister could not claim to have been assisted by the performance of Glenn Hoddle's team on the eve of the election.

Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Georgia in Hoddle's fifth World Cup qualifier left not so much a feelgood factor, as feelings of relief that the 1-0 home defeat by Italy in February had not sent England spiralling into another decline.

It was not a win to rave about, nor even one worth more than a couple of cheers, but it has consolidated England's position in second place in Group Two, and a further success in Poland at the end of next month would more or less assure them of finishing runners up.

At the moment, Gianfranco Zola's goal at Wembley looks like depriving Hoddle of first place and automatic qualification for the 1998 tournament in France. England can still avoid a two legged playoff by being the best runners up, and indeed are looking strong in this respect, but when the calculations are made, because some groups are bigger than others, only results against opponents lying first, third and fourth will matter. In other words England can count on very little just yet, chickens least of all.

Wednesday's game recalled all those past occasions when England have looked unimpressive in the qualifiers but still achieved the results they needed, and then surprised the pessimists in the competition proper. Remember, for example, Gary Lineker's eruption of goals in Mexico in 1986 followed in Italy, four years later, by Paul Gascoigne.

In Alan Shearer, and the resumption of his fruitful partner ship with Teddy Sheringham, England have a scoring potential to compare with the Lineker Peter Beardsley combination which blossomed under Bobby Robson. But Hoddle does not have, and will never have, the Gascoigne of Italia 90, and the downside of Wednesday's performance was the further reminder of how limited his options are when it comes to picking players with the art and the craft to unlock opposing defences.

After the game, the England coach was asked if he would like to have available the sort of creative influence he himself was as a player. Hoddle mentioned Paul Merson, Matt Le Tissier, Gascoigne and Darren Anderton, all injured or recovering from injuries, as comparable talents, but it was not really the right answer.

His decision to leave the off form Steve McManaman on the bench against Georgia made sense and would have made even more had the England coach not remained true to his earlier judgment that it was too early to ask David Beckham to switch to a central role. In fact, Beckham's refreshed first half performance confirmed Hoddle's view that young players do not necessarily need rests.

Hoddle justified his decision to leave out McManaman by saying that Robert Lee's penchant for getting into opposing penalty areas from midfield made it less likely that, with Sheringham dropping deep, Shearer would become isolated, as he was against Italy.

Be that as it may, asking someone called Robert Lee to invade Georgia will always be a mite optimistic. Fortunately, England had Shearer and Sheringham to end the opposition's often neat, but largely passive resistance.

Sheringham's firmheaded goal, supplied by Shearer's cross, towards the end of the first hall, and Shearer's thunderous shot, preceded by Sheringham's backheeled indirect free kick, in stoppage time, put a pleasing veneer on an otherwise fitful evening.

"Teddy's mind is quick," said Hoddle, "and he and Alan linked up well even in the early part of the game. You always sensed something was going to come from that.

"The disappointment for me was the 20 minutes after half time. We didn't go and assert ourselves as we should have done. We lost the reins on the game, if I'm honest. But you can never dictate a game for 90 minutes and at the end of the day, we've got three points and they've had one shot at goal.

. Galway United announced yesterday that Denis Clarke had resigned as the club's manager. Clarke, who led the club to League Cup and Shield successes earlier this year, cited work commitments as the main reason for decision, but the ongoing financial troubles at the club coupled with the team's failure to win promotion to the Premier Division will have resulted in considerable pressure on Clarke who took over at Terryland Park just over a year ago.