England were on course to go top in Group H after Wayne Rooney gave them an early lead in Podgorica on Tuesday, but the visitors wilted in the second half and Montenegro equalised with 14 minutes to play.
It leaves Hodgson’s side two points off the pace in the group, and they could be five points behind Montenegro by the time they resume their qualifying campaign in September if Branko Brnovic’s side beat Ukraine in June.
With only the side finishing in first place guaranteed to qualify for the World Cup, England face a fight to overhaul the Montenegrins, but Hodgson believes the fixture list will play in his side’s favour.
England play three of their final four games at Wembley Stadium, with a trip to Ukraine on September 10 the only time they will have to leave their base before the end of the qualifying campaign
““We’ve got three of our last four games at home,” Hodgson said. “We think it’s still in our hands and we intend to make sure we keep it in our hands by winning those matches,” he said.
English skipper Steven Gerrard also believes the team can still secure automatic qualification, despite the perfomance against Montenegro.
“They took control in the second half apart from the last 10 minutes, but we are still confident we can finish top of the group,” Gerrard said.
In other results from the latest round of qualifiers, world champions Spain regained the top spot in their group when they beat former leaders France 1-0 in a hard fought clash.
While Pedro Rodriguez’s second-half goal saw them take a one point lead over France in Group I, the team Spain beat in the 2010 World Cup final, The Netherlands maintained their perfect record with their sixth win in six games, a 4-0 success over Romania.
The Dutch – who have recovered brilliantly under Louis van Gaal since he stepped in after they exited Euro 2012 at the group stage – lead Group D by seven points, second-placed Hungary having drawn 1-1 away in Turkey.
Montenegro still lead them by two points and could stretch it to five if they beat Ukraine in June before the English play their next qualifier at home to Moldova in September.
Other European heavyweights had little trouble against lightly-regarded opponents, Germany cruising to a 4-1 win at home to Kazakhstan and a double from Mario Balotelli – taking his haul to 10 goals in nine games for club and country since signing for AC Milan from Manchester City – seeing Italy to a 2-0 win away in Malta.
Italy lead second-placed Bulgaria by three points – the Bulgarians having drawn 1-1 with Denmark – but with a game in hand.
The Czech Republic could sneak the runners-up play-off spot as a 3-0 win in Armenia on goalkeeper Petr Cech’s 100th appearance put them just two points behind Bulgaria and also with a game in hand.
The enthralling duel for top spot in Group A shows no sign of abating as Belgium edged Macedonia 1-0 in Brussels while Croatia stayed on level terms by coming from a goal down to beat plucky Wales 2-1 in Swansea.
Both sides are on 16 points with the Belgians ahead on goal difference, the two of them are nine points clear of Serbia, who put Scotland out of their misery by beating them 2-0 in Novi Sad to end their already dim hopes of reaching Brazil next year.
Spain dispelled notions before the match that their mastery of world football was on the wane after a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to unfancied Finland last Friday.
Their performance left coach Vicente del Bosque a satisfied man.
“They are three welcome points which changes our situation in the table,” said the unassuming former Real Madrid coach.
“What is better still is that we remained faithful to our style of play.”
However, Del Bosque is too experienced a hand to assume the hard work is over.
“There are still enough matches for the fortunes to change again, so nothing is yet done and dusted,” he added.