Barely discernible, there was the hint of a spring in the step of England’s players as they left the Olympic Stadium in Montjuic. You had to look for it. Perhaps you had to be there all those other times when the team departed the arena like men summoned to a distant relative’s funeral.

On Saturday it was different. They knew it had gone comparatively well. Not wonderfully, but with more positives than in previous matches. The tiniest green shoots of revival. Maybe this group could go to Zagreb and get a draw after all. Maybe.

Andorra are a useless team, though, and this was a useless fixture. There was no charm in the event, no romance, no thrill of David trying to bring down mighty Goliath. Andorra knew that they were going to lose; the only issue was by how many, so they attempted to destroy the game or, better still, to aggravate the opposition into impotent fury.

Their triumph remains the degree of humiliation that they can inflict before surrender and the last time England visited, that was quite a lot. It almost cost the head coach, Steve McClaren, his job. Even Fabio Capello, impervious to criticism right now, appeared uncomfortable as Andorra’s depressing negativity ate up precious scoring time. They played throughout like a team who had had three men sent off, clustered on the edge of their penalty area, clearing the ball long and reassembling for the next wave of attacks, the sole difference being that there were 11 blue shirts on the field. This made it hard for the only team trying to play football, with simply too much traffic between England’s players and the target.

When this happens, the game becomes a lottery, as the weekend’s results around Europe show. On a lucky day the chances go in and the gulf in class between the nations is properly represented (Liechtenstein 0, Germany 6); when unlucky, one team batter themselves senseless against a wall of resistance until finally it crumbles, but the scoreline does not reflect this and makes them appear foolish anyway (Serbia 2, Faeroe Isles 0). England had one of those days when the result did them a disservice. The exasperated expressions at half-time said it all, because to top professionals the challenge here is unique in its frustration. Even nonLeague opponents in an FA Cup tie – Havant & Waterlooville at Anfield last season – would have more ambition than this.

That did not stop an early contributor to the message boards in opining, sincerely, that Capello’s team should be winning matches against Andorra 14-0. Fortunately, the majority of those inside the ground demonstrated greater understanding. For the record, England have never won an international 14-0.

For Capello it was a nuisance to be endured and that much showed in his tension on the touchline, admonishing Wayne Rooney and Joe Cole for leaving Emile Heskey isolated in the second half. “Andorra played only to waste time, not to score goals,” the England manager said. “Going to Croatia is a difficult game, but it is more exciting. Games like this are not difficult, just dangerous. After 25 minutes I did not like this, because there is no challenge. Michel Platini, the Uefa president, is making changes in the Champions League, so maybe you should ask him and Sepp Blatter, of Fifa, whether they will change this also.”

Certainly, as Uefa membership becomes increasingly cumbersome with the rise of local nationalism and fragmentation in the East, there is a growing case for prequalifying rounds for the least able nations. What is the worth of a team who have no ambition to engage with the point of the sport and do not even play their home games within their borders?

“We are a very small country and we can only just kick around a bit,” Toni Lima, the Andorra defender, admitted, although there were 11 of those (Capello said nine, but he was probably being polite). “John Terry went down and I offered my hand to help him up, but he wouldn’t give me his. I told him we are not top players like him and we have to do what we can do, but he seemed upset about it.”

Terry may have been wondering what purpose this match was serving and he was not alone. The greatest shame is that the futility of the task makes the team with nothing to lose cynical and Andorra have a justified reputation as a nasty team, all sly fouls and play-acting. It was this behaviour that provoked Andrei Arshavin, the Russia forward, to kick Ildefons Lima, Toni’s brother, during the last qualifying match of the 2008 European Championship, having been cuffed around the head and fouled repeatedly.

Typically, Lima collapsed as if struck by a bullet, four Andorra players surrounded the referee and Arshavin was shown a red card, denying the finals one of its best players for two matches. It should not be Arshavin’s lot to be assaulted by amateurs and Platini should consider this the next time he is reforming European football.

So, as the game itself was a bust, what were the positives for England? Certainly the impact of Joe Cole – who should surely keep his place on Wednesday – and the sound partnership between Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry in central midfield. Theo Walcott burst into the game, then out of it, but he is a work in progress, while Heskey was a diligent second-half target man and will suffice until the manager regains faith in Michael Owen.

Glen Johnson and Stewart Downing were disappointing but neither is likely to feature against Croatia; apparently Capello’s logic was to sprinkle players who are fighting for a place in with his regulars to give the team energy as the opposition’s spoiling tactics caused momentum to be lost. The greatest impetus, however, came with the arrival as a half-time substitute of Cole, who has scored three goals in his past two games coming off the bench.

Credit is also due to the manager for his half-time changes. If Capello was truly the bullet-headed authoritarian of popular perception, he would not have been so swift to renege on his decision to install Jermain Defoe as his striker.

Capello will have known that withdrawing Defoe after 45 minutes, with the match goalless, would be seen as vindication for those who supported the inclusion of Owen – who was watching from home, no doubt with a large glass of Schadenfreude – but the manager did not compound an error by sticking with it in the hope of being proven right. The introduction of Heskey for Defoe, and Cole for Downing, perked up England’s movement and the game was soon won, Cole volleying the first at a set-piece and finishing adroitly from Rooney’s clever through-ball.

One of the advantages of a manager with a CV of such substance is that he is not interested in appearing clever; he won those battles long ago. Capello did what he thought was correct and, when it was not working, was bold enough to admit it and change. His reward was two goals in six minutes from Cole and three points. The serious challenge is on Wednesday, but Capello understands that, too. If England’s players are still smiling when they leave the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Capello will successfully be through step one of a painful recovery process.