Gazza short of gas

Stan Hey sees a performance beyond the pale by the blond playmaker

The mediaeval pageant which formed the centrepiece of Wembley's Euro 96 opening ceremony found an unfortunate echo in the game itself as England rediscovered one sainted hero in Alan Shearer but found their popular champion Paul Gascoigne quitting the field with obvious problems of stamina and morale.

While Gascoigne's enforced removal from action didn't take place until the 74th minute his influence on the game had declined rapidly well before then. Even so, the sight of him trudging off in apparent exhaustion clearly inspired the Swiss team to seek their equaliser.

And though it may have arrived fortuitously, with Stuart Pearce plainly not attempting a deliberate block of the ball, the referee must have ruled that Marco Grassi's shot was bound for goal. Certainly England would have claimed it had the boot been on the other foot.

Gascoigne's discomfort and sudden evaporation will probably demand the urgent attention of England's fitness coaches who will want to know if it was the stifling heat, his tendency towards over-excitement, or what they euphemistically call a refuelling problem that did for him.

It was ironic, although hardly surprising, that something dramatic should befall Gascoigne. The appearance of his blond head had raised the biggest cheer of the preliminaries and it was his puppy dog enthusiasm which set the tone and the pace of England's early movements.

However, the professional eyes were all on the performance of Alan Shearer who brought into this game such a bizarre goal-scoring drought that we were beginning to wonder if there was a twin brother somewhere scoring all those Premiership goals.

The early phases saw Shearer offer little more than a clever chest-pass from a throw in. But then Gascoigne found a focus for his breathless passion, sending in Paul Ince who in turn set Shearer free. It must have seemed like a slow motion moment to the Blackburn striker. Without an international goal since September 1994, and with only five to his credit in 23 games, here he was suddenly alone, facing goal with the ball sitting at his feet.

Yet the speed of his jack-hammer shot was real enough, as the ball screamed inside Marco Pascolo's near post to exorcise any self-doubts that Shearer might have entertained. Suddenly playing like a man who had climbed from the grave, Shearer nearly added to his score,on either side of the interval, first with a powerful header then with a skimming shot.

But while Shearer's rehabilitation seemed not only complete but also the likely instrument in securing an England victory, it soon became noticeable that Gascoigne was fading.

His substitution might have occurred 20 minutes earlier, such was his disappearance from the game. As it was, a thrusting burst by Johann Vogel, which simply brushed Gascoigne aside, became the cue for the England bench to take emergency action. How much his substitution rallied the Swiss only they will know, but they seemed to start to believe that they could save the game, and duly did courtesy of the disputed penalty.

Terry Venables took up Simply Red's tournament theme "We're in this together" - another way of expressing collective responsibility? - as he confessed: "We were dead on our feet in the second half."

But it was the fatigue of a specific individual that will give him the greatest cause for concern. Gazza's Hong Kong drinking spree made him a prime target for the critics so his performance can only be expected to throw further fuel on to the bonfires which seem to be lighting his path into professional oblivion.