Even if England were to hit double figures against the tiny principality, the pressure on their manager would ease off only a fraction between now and his squad's next genuine test in their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, an end-of-season trip to Estonia.

Failure to beat Andorra, against whom England scored five without reply in McClaren's first match in charge last year, is so unthinkable that the manager will be able to claim no credit from ending a winless run of five games in which his side have produced a solitary goal.

A bit of target practice at Barcelona's Olympic stadium could nonethless serve a valuable purpose for McClaren as he seeks to rebuild the self-belief of a squad in which morale appears to be disintegrating.

In the build-up to the match, McClaren could have done without having to deny suggestions that a rift has developed between him and Wayne Rooney, whose current difficulties in recapturing his best form in an England shirt is one of the main reasons why the team's supply of goals has dried up.

McClaren dismissed the claims as "an absolute load of rubbish," insisting that Rooney is one of the players to whom he is closest.

But it was telling that the head coach did not deny that things had got heated during the dressing room inquest into Saturday's disappointing goalless draw in Israel, a reality which had in any case already been confirmed by his captain, John Terry.

Instead, McClaren implied that frank exchanges reflected a genuine willingness to address the mystery of why the likes of Rooney, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have, of late, rarely transformed their club form to the international stage.

"Everybody is together and knows what we have to do and we have got to start doing it," McClaren said.

Although they have slipped five points behind pacesetters Croatia and have three points to make up on Russia, the team currently occupying group E's second qualifying spot, England do still retain control of their own destiny with seven matches left to play, four of them at the rebuilt Wembley.

The home and away fixtures against Russia look like being decisive and England's task may be eased if Croatia have already secured qualification by the time they visit London on the final night of qualifying in November.

"We still have to play Russia twice and Croatia at home," said McClaren. "It always boils down to these big games."

The former Middlesbrough has endured a torrid time at the hands of his increasingly outspoken critics in the press and among England's hardcore supporters.

It cannot have been pleasant for him to have to listen to chants of "you don't know what you're doing" or to realise he is being dubbed "McClown" with increasing regularity.

But he remains as defiantly upbeat in his confidence that he can turn things around as he was in suggesting that only poor finishing denied England victory in Tel Aviv.