England skipper Steven Gerrard said his side completely stopped playing in the second half, which allowed Montenegro to pull back the deficit and keep their lead at the top of Group H in the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers.

The English were seemingly in control of the match in Podgorica, after Wayne Rooney headed home the opener in the sixth minute.

However, the away side failed to capitalize on their dominance in the first half, with Montenegro fighting back in the second period to level things at 1-1. With the draw, Montenegro remained two points clear of England with only a handful of games remaining.

"We stopped playing after the break for 20 or 30 minutes and, away from home, you can't afford to do that," Gerrard said. "We stopped passing and they got a deserved equaliser. I think there was lot of experience out there and we showed that in the first half. We controlled the game. But the problem is when you are only 1-0 up you are always vulnerable.

"You've got to go on and get the second goal to get complete control and we never did that. They took control in the second half, apart from the last 10 minutes, so they deserved their draw. But we are still confident we can finish top of the group.

"We need to win all our games and we certainly need to improve on that second-half performance and play like we did (in the) first half.

"We certainly need to get three points when we go to Ukraine and we'll need perfect results at home against Moldova, Montenegro and Poland."

England manager Roy Hodgson was reasonably satisfied with the result, even if his side failed to show up in the second half.

"We'd had control in midfield initially but we lost that," Hodgson said. "So my overall feeling is one of disappointment because things were looking so good for us at one stage.

"I don't think it's a particularly bad result because Montenegro are a difficult team to beat but it would have been nice to have built on that lead at halftime and profited from it to go home with three points. But it's still in our hands because we play Montenegro and Poland at home."

Montenegro coach Branko Brnovic, who was bullish about a victory prior to the game, felt his side are now the favorites to qualify directly from the group.

"I told my players they had nothing to be afraid of at halftime," he said. "Now, if we beat Ukraine in June, it would virtually guarantee us at least second place in the group, if not first place.

"And England should remember that, for us, it is a lot easier to play away from home. If we'd had all our players tonight, we would have won this game."