Eriksson's options were at ground zero at the interval. He had to change or perish

The lynch mob may have dispersed with Ulrika Jonsson's anodyne recollections of an affair which should have been plastered with career warnings – and Michael Owen's 19th goal for England – but Sven Goran Eriksson will be wise not to mistake a stay of execution for the Queen's pardon.

As escapologists go, England's coach is beginning to brush against legendary status, and it is one which should be augmented by the Order of Houdini after Saturday's 2-1 win over Slovakia.

The trouble is that sooner or later the breaks of fortune tend to change direction and all the evidence from Bratislava says that before they do Eriksson has to get down to the proper organisation – and selection – of his team.

Some of the football cognoscenti, led by the BBC's chief pundit, Alan Hansen, are saying that the win over 45th-ranked Slovakia was a great result and that such an achievement is the viable currency of all successful teams.

Hansen's declaration misses a vital point. Teams cannot guarantee their form, and even the greatest of them have bad days, it is true, but the indictment against Eriksson is not that England fell below acceptable levels of individual performance for much of the game – though undoubtedly they did – but that his original selection was a repetition of old mistakes that gave his team no real foundation for a coherent performance.

His rearrangement at half-time, after a first-half performance that was every bit as inept as the second-half effort which saw the end of their hopes against Brazil in the World Cup, has also earned praise, but the acclaim is surely as empty of merit as any salute to the tactical instincts of a drowning man reaching for a piece of driftwood.

Eriksson's options were running at around zero at the interval. He had to change or perish. Slovakia, lifted by the excellent goal of Middlesbrough's Szilard Nemeth after 24 minutes and served with superb bite and practicality by the Wolfsburg midfielder Miroslav Karhan, had already stretched far ahead in authority and execution.

So what was Eriksson's masterstroke? It was to move Paul Scholes to the centre of the action rather than having him stranded on the left, which was to rectify an error so basic in his original selection that it was reasonable to speculate that he simply hadn't been watching when injury to Owen Hargreaves provoked a similarly vital readjustment in England's best World Cup performance, the victory over the joint favourites Argentina.

The second half brought a bite to the action in England's midfield, which was potent compensation for the uncertainties and profligacy of Nicky Butt and the faulty vision – and passing – of Steve Gerrard.

Scholes was again operating in his most favoured territory and not the least worrying of Eriksson's pre-match assertions was that he had seen Scholes play in a variety of positions for Manchester United and do well in all of them. Of course, one obligation of an international coach is to know precisely the most effective function of his key players. Scholes's is not to scuffle away from the heart of proceedings like a schoolboy sent to the corner of the classroom.

On such a heavy pitch, where physical strength was always going to prove an important factor, Emile Heskey was inevitably seen at times to his best effect – but here again was an Eriksson selection which seemed at variance with the team's most pressing need. That, for some years now, has been, to supply Owen with the best available service and though it is true that Heskey did deliver one telling pass to the Liverpool swordsman, which was untypically squandered, the games of Owen and Heskey remained, as always, essentially incompatible.

Alan Smith, whose performance against Portugal at Villa Park last month had brimmed with such promise alongside Owen, came on to the field with just a gasp or two left as England reached a new pitch of desperation in their survival of the late attempts by Slovakia to glean at least the draw they so thoroughly deserved with the balance and sharpness of their play.

Smith had offered superior natural ability, sharp football intelligence and a clear point of development for the team to widen its attacking options. His nominal appearance thus only heightened the sense of lost opportunity which was not significantly lessened by the second-half goals of David Beckham and Owen.

The value of the resulting three points was, of course, huge, especially after the bleakness of what had gone before. But the idea that the result wiped away all blemishes and concern that England simply have not moved on since the 5-1 defeat of Germany – which is more than ever smacking of the freakish – is surely fanciful.

England got the result in spite of and not because of the way their performance had been conceived. It was a chilling reality that could not be dispelled in the cold night, disfigured again by dreadful terrace scenes which brought back the residual horror of the English football experience abroad.

It was, indeed, a night not exactly designed for wishful thinking. It was impossible to say more of England than that their second-half performance was an improvement – but on what? A total collapse in authority against a team, admittedly buoyed by local passion and wretched conditions working against their opponents, but still one that belonged on a much lower strata of the game.

There were no panaceas, and other discouraging conclusions could not be avoided. One was that David Beckham's huge reputation for leadership had been heavily compromised by a loss of control, expressed in a series of tackles that might have brought a red card from anyone less benevolently inclined than the Italian referee.

Another myth that didn't stand a moment's scrutiny was the claim by an FA official that the behaviour of English fans, which provoked punishing attention from the formidable Slovakian riot police, had been incited by the racial abuse received by Ashley Cole and Heskey from some of the home supporters.

That abuse was persistent and sickening – but a provocation to the liberal spirits who have wasted more European cities than is probably beyond their sober recall, and who attempted to dismantle Lansdowne Road while chanting "No Surrender to the IRA"? Perhaps not. It has been a rough few days for Eriksson, and English football on all fronts but the passage to a better future, starting in Southampton on Wednesday against modestly rated Macedonia will not be helped by refusal to face certain truths.

England, we should be quite sure about this, return from Bratislava not in triumph but after an unlikely deliverance. The fact is they may never be so lucky again.