England hammered after Icelandic collapse

Former England players and the country's media lined up to savage the national football team after their 2-1 loss to tiny Iceland which sent them spinning out of the European Championship.

"Good Riddance" the Daily Mail bellowed on their back page.

The Daily Express needed just one word, "Clueless", while the normally more measured Daily Telegraph simply stated "England's greatest humiliation".

Just days after Britons voted to leave the European Union in a referendum that sent shockwaves around the world, England's footballers managed to deliver a European exit of their own in Nice.

Some observers said this was England's worse result since losing to the US in the World Cup in 1950, while others pointed to their thrashing by Hungary in 1954.

A joke immediately spread about a petition being set up to have the match replayed, referring to the petition more than 2.4 million Britons have signed on parliament's website calling for a second EU referendum.

Many jokers were suggesting Roy Hodgson should take over from the outgoing David Cameron as Britain's Prime Minister "as he would be the perfect man to lead the country out of Europe".

Just as Cameron said he would step down following the Brexit vote, Hodgson resigned in the aftermath of England's defeat.

"England beaten by a country with more volcanoes than professional footballers. Well played, Iceland," tweeted former striker Gary Lineker.

He was joined by a number of former England players in eviscerating Hodgson's players.

"England - pathetic, shocking, inept," was Alan Shearer's verdict.

Former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright joined the chorus of discontent.

"Someone was waiting for someone else to do something. They were petrified," he said.