Sven Goran Eriksson refused to be downbeat after his England side secured just a point against underdogs Macedonia.

Shortly after the match he said, "We shall not start to cry yet. We were unlucky when they scored a couple of times. Both goals they scored were lucky.

"We scored two and had the chance to score many more. We didn`t play badly. For long periods we played good football.

"Macedonia could go and win the ball with nine or 10 players and they did it well. We should have won this and deserved to but to win it you have to score more."

Asked about Macedonia's firts goal, Eriksson said: "I have not asked David about it. I have just seen it live, not on TV yet, but I will. Bad luck."

Eriksson still felt that England should have won the match. "I don`t know how many chances we had - a lot. We should have scored more than twice. It is important to go on working.

"We can do better. There are eight games to play and I think when we went into the qualification for the World Cup it was much worse. We have to get back those points in another game."

Eriksson was supportive of Smith after his two yellow cards, believing the young Leeds striker played well.  "Alan had a good game and was unlucky not to score. Their goalkeeper saved them on many occasions tonight."

He continued: "We didn't have more attackers on the bench and I think we had done rather well and couldn't see any reasons to change in the last five minutes. When you're chasing a goal you always risk being open to counter-attacks." 

Sven did take some positives from the game though and is as optimistic as ever. He added, "We played good football for long periods. We created a lot of chances. Alan Smith did well and so did Wayne Bridge on the left side.

"Next time we will try to take our chances - then life is much easier. It's a pity to drop two points and makes it more difficult to win the group.

"But with eight games why should we not still have the target to win the group - we can still do it."