I am delighted to report that after the Poms gave us such a rubbishing in the UK press over our dismal effort against Germany - England has managed to scrape together - rather badly I might say - two draws and now has to beat Slovenia to remain in the tournament.
Most of the England players looked like they would rather be somewhere else (and in fact the goalkeeper from the first game was). There was not much sparkle and you wonder what the outcome would have been if they had been playing someone other than Algeria.
This is a delicious situation and I will watch the next game against Slovenia with some relish. Not because I particularly don’t want England to get through to the next round - on that point I am ambivalent - because they cannot win the World Cup - but because they are so arrogant and pompous about Australia.
I think I have about 25 music channels on Sky Satellite TV and about 4 of them are showing non-stop English football anthems - ‘Hooray for England’ and all that stuff.
I wonder if they will keep playing them if England does not get through to the next round?
I imagine so - I don’t think many football fans in the UK actually require football to sustain them. 30 pints of beer and a broken bottle seems to set the average fan up for a top night - regardless of the outcome of any game played.
It is an English tradition that when they play in continental Europe and lose - they sack the town. This is sort of revenge for the Saxons, Normans and the Vikings. I think they may be a bit more circumspect in South Africa because it is a long way from Blighty.
