Football / World Cup USA '94: Charlton sorry for Norway

JACK CHARLTON beamed with delight and said: 'Without question we've come through the toughest group of the lot. It's been very competitive and all four teams have ended up with four points so I feel sorry for Norway.

'But I am delighted we've made it and we're not worried about going back to Orlando for the next match. We'll be playing another European team, probably Belgium or the Dutch, and they've got just as many problems with the heat there as we have.'

Charlton watched the match from a position among the television cameras in the main stand, having been banned from the touchline by Fifa. He said: 'It was a mixed experience - good and bad all in one.

'I wanted to be down there with the players so that they could feel my presence, but up high I could analyse the game better and learn more about the players. Would I choose to repeat it? No, but it wasn't that bad and Maurice Setters did a perfect job on the touchline for me.

'Although I still don't quite know what I was punished for it's all over now.

'I would have liked to push more men forward and tried to penetrate, rather than knocking balls across the line like we did in the first half. But while the score was 0-0 there was no way we could gamble on doing that.

'Norway came out for the second half after not being much of a threat and suddenly started to give us problems. But we handled it and were making the chances again towards the end. It would have been nice to win it but this result is all right for us.

'I was surprised Norway did not throw more at us in the first half because when you get a big guy like Jostein Flo against you for headers you've got big problems and a big battle on your hands. All we could do was to make sure somebody was there to pick up the ball when it dropped off him.'

Ray Houghton collected a yellow card for running on the pitch holding a container of water, but said: 'It was a bit ridiculous. I didn't have any option but to keep playing because the ball was near me and I had been handed the drink.'