• Chelsea midfielder booked for challenge on Adam Hammill
• ‘I was late and might have been a bit lucky to stay on the pitch’

Frank Lampard admitted he was fortunate to be on the pitch when he struck a late goal to give Chelsea a much-needed win against Wolverhampton Wanderers, with the England midfielder conceding that Peter Walton, the referee, could easily have brandished a red card following his reckless challenge on Adam Hammill in the 24th minute of their 2-1 victory.

Walton elected to show only a yellow card to Lampard, who caught Hammill late and well above his ankle, leaving the Wolves winger requiring treatment. To rub salt into Wolves’ wounds, Lampard not only stayed on the field but also came up with the winning goal when he converted Ashley Cole’s centre in the 89th minute, after Stephen Ward had cancelled out Ramires’s effort only moments earlier.

The result will do much to relieve the pressure on the Chelsea manager, André Villas-Boas, who was surrounded by half a dozen of the Chelsea players when Ramires scored. Lampard was not among the group and although Villas-Boas said that it would be unwise to read anything into those that were absent from the celebrations, it was noticeable that the midfielder made no attempt to run to the dug-out when he scored at the death.

“My heart was in my mouth over that challenge. I have to admit that,” Lampard said. “There was no malice and I honestly mean that but I was late and I might have been a bit lucky to stay on the pitch. I said straight away to Hammill. I was very sorry. I was trying to get my foot in and I was maybe lucky but it wasn’t any conspiracy between the referee and us. There were a few things that could have gone either way today. It was a full-blooded game and I just apologised to the player because I was a bit late.”

Walton appeared to lose control of the game for a period in the first half and made a number of unfathomable decisions, including allowing Ashley Cole to escape without a yellow card despite poor tackles on Hammill and Kevin Doyle. Five players were booked during a feisty eight-minute spell, including Lampard, whom Villas-Boas believes escaped a red card because of his reputation. It was an argument that went down badly with Mick McCarthy on the back of Nenad Milijas’s sending off at Arsenal on Boxing Day, although the Wolves manager was more concerned with the poor defending that led to Lampard’s winner than the decision to keep him on the pitch.

Villas-Boas said: “What I would say is that Peter Walton decided on a criteria and established that criteria for the rest of the game. Five minutes into the game there was a situation for a yellow card and he decided not to give it. I know the challenge might have been over the top but I think Peter conceded that Frank is not that type of player to be sent off, to lose his head over a challenge. I would congratulate his decision and his criteria-making during the game. What I normally don’t accept, particularly in the Queens Park Rangers game [earlier in the season] is establishing a criteria and then not sticking to it.”

Villas-Boas played down suggestions that the celebrations following Ramires’ goal were a show of support for the manager. “I think it’s just part of their showing of unity for the team and what the team has been doing,” he said. “We really tried hard to get those six points at home in the festive period and because it meant something for the run to the Premier League title. But it wasn’t the case so I think this was more of a celebration based on the fact that we can get together to save our problems. I don’t think it was about [me].”

The Chelsea manager praised his players for the “strength of character” they showed to regain the lead after Wolves equalised and although he left the door open to the possibility that his side could rejoin the title race, he admitted that would only happen if they showed the sort of consistency that has eluded them so far this season. “We need to get a series of wins which hasn’t happened. Our best period of the season was three wins and a draw and it’s not good enough,” Villas-Boas said.

Premier League 2011-12Frank LampardAndré Villas-BoasChelseaWolverhampton WanderersPremier LeagueStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk

Persisting with a tired old guard and a refusal to make major changes have left England’s future looking less-than bright

The most hopeful words uttered on England’s behalf came from their youngest player, speaking in the buildup to Saturday’s draw with Switzerland. Jack Wilshere said how much he was looking forward to being joined in England’s midfield by Josh McEachran, Chelsea’s 18-year-old playmaker. Unfortunately for Wilshere, the man next to him as the match kicked off was Frank Lampard, McEachran’s clubmate, now only a couple of weeks away from his 33rd birthday.

England’s long-term prospects are by no means hopeless. The talent exists, as we may see in the European Under-21 Championship finals, which begin in Denmark next weekend. But Fabio Capello, who will leave his job next summer at the latest, has never considered himself to be the curator of the team’s future, and the Italian is not the only England manager to have paid a price for clinging to the obsolescent past, refusing to make the major changes needed since Lampard’s generation returned from Germany five years ago with their reputation in ruins.

In the first half against Switzerland we saw a side being let down by their senior players. The creaking Rio Ferdinand, another 32-year-old, failed to cut out Tranquillo Barnetta’s free-kick, which curled inside the far post, making Joe Hart look stupid. James Milner – only 25, but a veteran in terms of experience – unaccountably moved out of the correctly positioned two-man defensive wall just as Barnetta was striking another free-kick, and could not have done a more effective job of exposing Hart once again had he been wearing the visitors’ red strip.

Meanwhile Lampard was adding nothing more than suet to a pudding of a midfield which struggled so badly throughout the first half that it tarnished the 4-1-4-1 formation with which England were supposed to be consigning the discredited 4-4-2 to the dustbin of history. With Lampard alongside poor Wilshere, England could neither penetrate nor cope with their fast-breaking opponents, and the threadbare nature of the Chelsea man’s performance was starkly exposed by that of Gökhan Inler, Switzerland’s captain, whose control of the central areas is likely to benefit Juventus next season.

And so, unfortunately for modernists, it was only when England reverted to a form of 4-4-2 for the second half that the team came alive. For this, Capello can take credit. The decision to replace Lampard with Ashley Young, playing as a free-ranging second striker behind Darren Bent, brought a measure of zest and direction to a hitherto stodgy performance, along with the goal that saved the team’s face.

Why Young did not start the match, despite having contributed much to March’s win in Cardiff, is a mystery. Capello tried to explain it afterwards by claiming the Aston Villa forward is not a winger, although that was the position in which he performed with distinction against Wales. But if that were so, why did he not take the opportunity to see what Young could do from the start in the role vacated by the suspended Wayne Rooney?

Any manager would prefer to make changes gradually, allowing young players to benefit from the experience of old team-mates while making the transition to senior international football. But the generation of Ferdinand and Lampard has failed so often and, in two World Cups, so spectacularly that it is astonishing to see the survivors still assuming their places in the team as if by right.

Virtually everything that has been good about England during Capello’s time has come from young faces, starting with Rooney and Theo Walcott in Zagreb. But so poorly has the process been handled that now we find ourselves wondering whether Leighton Baines, already 26, has what it takes to become an international player, after the Everton left-back showed flashes of promise when he replaced a limping Ashley Cole on the half-hour, and whether Scott Parker, 30 years old but with so little international mileage on his clock, really is the long-awaited replacement for Owen Hargreaves.

It is hard to envisage posterity regarding the Capello era as anything other than yet another disaster. Unwilling to commit himself to a long-term vision for England, he has been unable to make the short-term fixes with any real success. More than three years after his arrival, the team still have no settled shape. Most bizarrely of all, this Italian coach has not been able to give the team a reliable defence, as we saw from the goals they handed to Switzerland.

He stayed on last summer, even though he would have been happy to go, because the Football Association could not afford the pay-off and he was not going to leave without it. So now, before they can make another really positive step into the future, England must endure another year of performances veering from the mildly encouraging, usually against poor opposition, to the thoroughly dispiriting.

A year ago, having watched England prepare themselves for a World Cup according to his specifications, Capello was disconcerted to see them play without energy. On Saturday night, having told the world that they had trained for the match with the enthusiasm of schoolboys, he was forced into a similar admission. So perhaps there is more to it than just the end of a long season. When players really want to play, they can usually find the energy from somewhere. But between this manager and his squad, there seems to be no exchange of inspiration.

EnglandFrank LampardRio FerdinandFabio CapelloChelseaJack WilshereRichard Williamsguardian.co.uk