Wembley point a pleasant surprise for Montenegro

Montenegro's celebrations at the final whistle told their own story after a goalless draw at Wembley which marked a frustrating evening for England.

Fabio Capello's side enjoyed large swathes of possession as they sought to maintain their 100% UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying record but were unable to pick the lock of a well-marshalled Montenegrin defence. Zlatko Kranjčar's surprise package remain top of Group G with ten points from their opening four fixtures and the significance of securing a share of the spoils from their maiden meeting with England was not lost on the visitors.

"For Montenegrin football this is a very big result," defender Stefan Savić told UEFA.com. "We need second place and this is a big, big result for us. Now we go back to our country and wait for Bulgaria [in June]. This was a very big game for us. [Kranjčar] was very happy because we didn't expect a point from Wembley. We all go back to our country very happy. We came here to play but the result came after a good performance. The key was our good defence and being very organised."

England recommence their own campaign against Wales in March and Rio Ferdinand, who resumed captaincy duty on Tuesday having missed the FIFA World Cup through injury, is confident they are still on track. "It's a pity we've got five months to stew over this but we didn't lose and we didn't concede a goal so that was pleasing," he said. "I'd have been a lot more disappointed if we hadn't created chances but their keeper did have saves to make."

Gareth Barry was similarly pragmatic, conceding that their opponents had stifled the hosts to good effect. "They set up as we expected," said the Manchester City FC midfielder. "They sat very deep and allowed us no space on the ball. The chances we had were half-chances so we have to give credit to them. If we'd got three points we'd have been sitting very nicely, but seven points from three games is not the end of the world; it's still in our own hands. We're still confident we can top the group."

Barry's sentiments were echoed by Kevin Davies, who came on for the closing 20 minutes to make his international debut at the age of 33. "I'm hopeful I've made a bit of an impression," said the striker. "They got a lot of men behind the ball and proved very difficult to break down. They came here to get a point and they got it."