The Manchester City goalkeeper's seemingly innate susceptibility under pressure resurfaced in Austria as Sven-Goran Eriksson's desire to be judged on results returned to haunt him.

With 19 minutes left, England were 2-0 ahead and seemingly coasting to victory until the home side sparked a late comeback which increases the pressure already bearing down on the England coach.

But while Eriksson will take much of the flak for these two dropped points, with his team yet again unable to hold onto a lead, it could - or perhaps even should - be James who pays a more immediate price.

Having firstly been beaten by a free-kick from substitute Roland Kollmann, the England goalkeeper then allowed Andreas Ivanschitz's shot to sneak under his body just two minutes later.

It was, sadly, a hapless error and capped an awful night for James, who had previously only been saved by a goal-line clearance from John Terry after a moment of madness in rushing off his line.

Paul Robinson must now surely come into the equation as England's first-choice goalkeeper, even though Eriksson may well keep faith with the under-fire James for the time being.

It was, above all, such a waste, with the two goals in just three minutes undermining all the hard work that had gone before it.

Eriksson's twin midfield maestros, Frank Lampard - with his fifth goal in seven internationals - and Steven Gerrard - despite doubts over his fitness - had inspired the team into that 2-0 lead.

And that should have been it.

Except now, Eriksson instead faces an even tougher test in Poland next Wednesday with the pressure having markedly grown and his goalkeeper's future in real question against a side that tonight won 3-0 away to Northern Ireland.

Gerrard's fitness must also be reassessed as he came off in the second-half after earlier making a huge impact on the game following a successful late fitness test.

He and Lampard were the fulcrum of the team as they settled into their stride, with Alan Smith's shot saved by former Arsenal keeper Alex Manninger.

All the early chances were being created by the visitors, with Owen miskicking one shot wide from Gerrard's forceful pass and then heading a cross by Lampard just over the top.

When Manninger could only push out Neville's dangerous low cross, defender Martin Stranzl was overcome by his own rush of blood to the head.

Instead of hacking the ball clear, he presumably thought the whistle had blown and, as if in slow motion, he rolled a pass back to Manninger.

Under pressure, the keeper instinctively dived on the ball and referee Michel Lubos ordered an indirect free-kick from just 15 yards out.

When Smith touched the ball, Beckham resisted the temptation to blast a shot goalwards and was intelligent enough to pick out Lampard, who was standing unmarked to the side of the wall.

With the Austrian defence having ignored not only him but also Owen, the Chelsea midfielder swept the ball home from close range and England were ahead.

In less than 18 months, Lampard has been transformed from a peripheral squad member to a pivotal England figure.

Indeed, his finishing now seems rather sharper than that of Owen, who then raced onto Lampard's long ball only to be denied by Manninger.

So quickly off his line was the Austrian keeper, however, that replays showed he actually saved the shot outside his area and could easily have been sent off for a professional foul.

As it was, he escaped, while James timed his effort rather better as he dived at the feet of Mario Haas as the striker burst through.

Owen continued to be denied after the restart, with one tame shot being saved by Manninger, while he chose to set up Smith the next time that he was through.

That came after Gerrard was lucky not to be penalised in winning back possession, although Manninger still did excellently to foil Smith from point-blank range.

That was more than could be said for James, who was only saved from his first 'calamity' moment when Terry cleared off the line after the England keeper raced out of his box and was beaten by Haas.

England were by now putting pressure on themselves by their own sloppiness in possession, but they looked to have gained some breathing space with 26 minutes left.

When Smith valiantly won back possession, Owen laid the ball off to Gerrard and the midfielder left Manninger grasping at thin air with with an exquisite 20-yard shot into the far corner.

However, Austria struck back almost immediately. When Lampard conceded a free-kick just outside the penalty area, substitute Kollmann curled a superb effort past James, who was perhaps slow to react.

That should have been the moment for England to regroup. Sadly not.

Instead, although Ivanschitz's shot was slightly deflected, that offered no excuse to James as he allowed the ball to squirm under his body.

Substitute Jermain Defoe almost saved England in the final stages as he struck the outside of the post but there was to be no salvation for Eriksson - or James.

England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson was not keen to condemn James for his second-half slips.

Asked if James would be first-choice goalkeeper for Wednesday's match in Poland, the Swede said: 'Ask me on Tuesday, maybe.

'But he has saved us so many times before - so it's not a problem.'

Eriksson struggled to hide his disappointment though, adding on Sky Sports: 'I'm sure we were good enough to win the game.

'We did well in the first half and had complete control of the game.

'They pushed some players up in the second half but I don't think they created any good chances at all.

'We should have made it 3-0 and with 20 minutes to go it looked like we should win the game - although not easily.

'But in football sometimes you play well enough to win the game and you don't - unfortunately.'

Eriksson continued: 'It's more important now that we take three points in Poland and I hope we go on playing like we did in the first half.

'Defensively I thought we did well - I don't remember Austria having any clear chances at all in the 90 minutes, although they had dangerous corners and the free-kick was very good.

'But I think we should have scored more than two goals and won the game - but we didn't and that's it.

'It's disappointing to see the free-kick go in and disappointing to see their second goal go in - and it was disappointing to see we hit the post.'

Asked if he believed dropping two points increased the pressure on his team to get a result in Poland, Eriksson added: 'Yes, but whenever England play football the pressure is always on.'

England captain David Beckham stressed the importance of looking forward - rather than back.

He explained: 'We have to forget this and pick ourselves up for the game on Wednesday.

'I think we deserved three points and should have come away with them but we have to look forward now and forget about this.

'We would have settled for four points out of the two games - now we've got to win the game in Poland.

'If we'd carried three points into that game it would have taken some of the pressure off us - but now we've got to go over there and win.

'It couldn't have been a better performance for 70 minutes tonight - but then it all went wrong.

'Maybe we sat back a little bit more, but when you play a team who hit you with long balls sometimes it works for them - and it did in the last 20 minutes.

'They scored from a free-kick and a shot from 25 yards out - other than that they had no chances.'

Austria goalkeeper Alex Manninger regarded the result as 'fantastic'.

He added: 'We knew we were playing one of the most dangerous sides in Europe, so to go away with a 2-2 draw is fantastic for us.

'We're definitely happy to go away with a 2-2 draw - obviously England were the better side but results count and I would say we are lucky today.'

However, the former Arsenal player was unhappy at the way England's first goal came about, with Beckham squaring an indirect free-kick in the Austria box to Lampard, who netted from close range.

The free-kick was awarded when defender Martin Stranzl heard a whistle from the crowd, thought referee Michel Lubos had blown it - and rolled a pass back to Manninger.

Under pressure from Owen, the goalkeeper instinctively dived on the ball and Lubos ordered an indirect free-kick from just 15 yards out.

Manninger said: 'It was an unbelievable goal - it didn't seem like a backpass and the whole team, even the England players, heard the whistle.

'We thought he had stopped the game - then he said it was a backpass. They scored out of nothing really.'

After admitting he was 'probably a fraction outside the box' when he handled from Owen - and was lucky to stay on - he said he hoped his save from Alan Smith would help Austria earn a place at the World Cup finals in 2006.

He added: 'It's probably one of the important saves I've made because it was the save that gave us a chance in this game.

'We didn't have a lot of the game - we played some decent football but we didn't have the chances.'

James accepted that his performance might have been more solid, recognising: 'I'm an international goalkeeper.'

But he added: 'The free-kick was particularly good, frustrated though I was not to have saved it.'

The second goal was considered to be his main error, and James vowed to put the mistake behind him, adding: 'Mistakes happen. I've done it before.'

Source: soccernet.com