Listen - McClaren bemoans "Saddest Day of My Career"

Steve McClaren's reign as England manager came to an end less than 12 hours after the loss to Croatia, which made certain the team will not be travelling to Austria and Switzerland next summer.

After being given chance after chance to secure qualification themselves, an awful performance at an embarassingly bad Wembley pitch was finally their undoing. With Israel giving England everything they needed by beating Russia last weekend, McClaren claimed there were 'no excuses' for failure now. However, despite coming back from two goals down, England sat back and invited pressure, and duly paid with just 13 minutes left when Petric scored the winner for Slaven Bilic's impressive side.

Come Thursday morning it was all over for McClaren. A manager who many questioned just WHY he was given the job was finally gone, just fifteen months into his 4 year contract. The ex-Boro boss said he understood the reasons behind his departure and cannot hide the fact that he had failed at the first hurdle with the under-performing national side. He always maintained he should be judged on qualification, but despite numerous 'Get out of Jail Free' cards he couldn't secure the point they needed by losing the last two matches of the campaign.

Listen now to his final press conference after being relieved of his position.

Related - Barwick confirms McClaren departure

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