In the final warm-up game before the World Cup qualifiers get underway next month, England's flops proved that all that glitters in sport is not necessarily gold.

In contrast to the athletes who have done their country proud in the Olympics, Fabio Capello's side did their best to banish the feel-good factor that had built up during Team GB's tremendous success in Beijing.

OK, England may have somehow rescued a draw through stoppage time goals at the end of each half from Wes Brown and Joe Cole.

But as those in the 69,738 crowd who had stayed to the final whistle filed out of Wembley and into a miserable north London night, few were fooled by the 2-2 scoreline after a game in which the Czech Republic had been by far the better side.

All the old failings that left the Three Lions sulking at home this summer while the best of Europe played out an engrossing Euro 2008 had not gone away, whether it be the inability to cope with a team playing an incisive passing game or the lack of a goalkeeper who can be relied upon not to make needless errors.

Last night's defeat also showed that without the injury-prone Michael Owen, Capello does not possess one striker he can rely on to score goals.

And with the crucial trip to Croatia, a side who play a similar free-flowing passing game to the Czechs, being less than three weeks away it means Capello has a major headache before his first competitive outings as England manager.

In fact, about the only plus on a miserable August night for the Italian was that England remain a major threat from set-pieces – as proved by both goals last night having come from corners.

As reassuring as this may be, however, it is unlikely that deadball skills alone will be enough to bring success – meaning that David Beckham's days in the starting line-up are surely numbered.

The LA Galaxy man was badly at fault for the visitors' opener after, first, losing possession with a slack pass in his own half and then compounding the error by stupidly chasing 40 yards to the left flank in a desperate attempt to try and make amends. And fail.

It meant when the ball had, within seconds, been worked to Radek Skirl on the right flank that Beckham should have been patrolling, he was able to pick out Milan Baros who then turned Terry with embarrassing ease and drill a shot that was deflected past David James by Ashley Cole.

With Micah Richards being hugely impressive for the Under- 21s at Hull's KC Stadium on Tuesday night it may not be long before the calls for the Leeds-born defender, whose preferred position is in the middle, to replace the captain will become too loud for even Capello to ignore.

England, who had huffed and puffed during the opening 45 minutes to little effect, did draw level on the stroke of half-time through Brown only for the visitors to regain the lead shortly after the restart when Marek Jankulowski's fiercely hit free-kick flew past a static James and into the corner of the net.

The night almost got even worse for England on the hour when the Portsmouth goalkeeper, living up to the 'Calamity James' nickname that has dogged his career, unwisely rushed from his goal to try and intercept a pass intended for Vaclav Sverkos.

There was never any chance of James reaching the ball first and he was a relieved man to see the Czech substitute shoot wide from a difficult angle.

The let-off meant that when Joe Cole untidily scrambled the ball over the line from close range in the 92nd minute after the visitors had failed to clear a David Bentley corner, it was enough to rescue a draw.

But few in the crowd were fooled and the boos deservedly rang out at the final whistle.

Afterwards, despite the lacklustre performance, Capello praised England's first-half performance and stressed the strength of the opposition.

He said: "We played very well in the first half, we had a lot of chances to score.

"I'm happy because we played for a long time – for an hour – good, I liked it.

"But the Czech counter-attack was very dangerous and we need to work on that.

"I learned things that when the other team counter-attack we have problems.

"We are just starting the season and some players are not at the top physically and I'm sure in the next game we will be better. but I'm happy that we played better. We took another step forward tonight."

England: James; Brown, Ferdinand (Woodgate 57), Terry, A Cole; Beckham (Jenas 79), Lampard (Bentley 79), Barry, Gerrard (J Cole 57); Rooney (Downing 69), Defoe (Heskey 46). Unused substitutes: Robinson, G Johnson, Bridge, Upson, Walcott, Hart.

Czech Republic: Cech; Grygera, Ujfalusi, Rozehnal, Jankulovski; Vlcek (Jarolim 46), Kovac (Rajnoch 76), Polak, Sirl (Kadlech 76); Plasil (Papadupulos 90); Baros (Sverkos 46). Unused substitutes: Zitka, Pospech.

Referee: T Hauge (Norway).