Shropshire Star deputy editor Jon Simcock explains why Shropshire’s Joe Hart must start England’s crucial match against Algeria on Friday.

Oh dear, dear, dear.

It’s happened again. A single, simple, goalkeeping blunder totally undermines a decent team effort and puts England on the back foot right at the start of the world’s biggest tournament.

Okay, this time it’s not fatal – at least not yet. This time it’s not Peter Bonetti throwing away our world champions title, or Shilts or Seaman’s geriatric legs being unable to back pedal quickly enough to prevent the preventable, but Robert Green’s schoolboy blunder on Saturday night was surely an accident waiting to happen.

There is barely a football fan in England who does not know where the national team’s greatest weakness lies.

Since Paul Robinson took to finding all new ways of letting the ball squirm past him while wearing the national colours, a succession of England keepers have brought their own brand of slapstick to the Number 1 shirt.

Only in England – once the home of the world’s greatest shotstoppers – could our most-trusted keeper carry the nickname Calamity almost without irony.

Even when fit everyone knows that David James is a gamble waiting to blow up in Fabio Capello’s face at any given moment.

We watch, we wait, and we wonder when the inevitable James howler will come. Of one thing we are certain, there will be at least one in any 90 minutes for which he’s on the pitch.

And then there is poor Robert Green. Okay, he fronted up after the match and said sorry.

And he did make a half-decent near-post save to keep England level in the second half (though talk of redemption by Clive Tyldesley was surely a little over the top).

But can we really risk an international keeper who can get two hands to a half-hit shot and yet still manage to turn it over his own line?

And let’s not hear anymore about the Jabulani ball doing all sorts of strange things in the air to confuse otherwise sound keepers.

Clint Dempsey’s shot was so slow it barely moved along the ground, let alone performed any tricks in the air.

No. Robert Green’s mistake was the mistake of a keeper used to making mistakes.

It was the mistake of a keeper used to conceding goals each and every week at West Ham.

It was the mistake of a keeper used to playing behind a weak back four which has struggled to survive all season.

Look at the Opta statistics. They show Green made more mistakes last season which led to goals than any other Premier League player.

And pretty much the same applies to David James. At Portsmouth last season he took the pitch knowing that he was going to lose every week.

Knowing that he was going to let goals in. Knowing that his defence was not up to the job.

Is that the basis on which to select an England keeper for the most important match in four years? Absolutely not.

There is one option and one option only. Call up the keeper who, week-in, week-out, was as good as any in the Premier League last term.

A keeper whose errors could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

A keeper who helped Birmingham City to their best – and meanest – season for years.

Call up Joe Hart. And put England’s future back in safe hands.