Robinson: Failure hard to swallow

But the Tottenham goalkeeper insisted England have to remain positive and focused on their own final game against Croatia as they pray for a minor miracle - and a helping hand from Israel against Russia.

Robinson said: "It is difficult when you are depending on other teams. It will be difficult to take if we don't qualify. We have to stay focused and still believe because, as we saw in our game, five minutes can change a football match."

He added: "Russia have got a difficult place to go to still in Israel and they've got to get the results now."

The former Leeds custodian conceded he did not get "a strong enough hand" on the shot from Alexey Berezutskiy, which led to Russia substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko scoring the winner against Steve McClaren's side on Wednesday evening.

But England had enough chances to have sewn the game up, with stand-in skipper Steven Gerrard guilty of one of the misses of the season, before Guus Hiddink's side netted twice in four minutes to turn the game around.

Now they need Israel to thwart Russia in Tel Aviv next month in the same way as they held England to a goalless draw in March if realistic qualification hopes are to be revived.

Robinson said: "It seems like we have had a kick in the teeth. We were confident going into the Russia game. We showed that in the first half. We were in total control.

"We couldn't believe afterwards that we hadn't won the game. But the penalty for their first goal gave them a lift and the crowd got behind them and, when a team has got momentum, it is difficult to stop.

"For the second goal, I didn't just get enough on the ball. I got a hand on it but not a strong enough hand and the ball fell in the middle of the area. But we had chances as well to have gone further ahead at 1-0."