SO TOTALLY England

For fucks sake. That was SO England. Cruising along without really being under any pressure and looking for all the world like we were going to win an opening game at the Euros for the first time ever. And then James Milner was brought on and I’d guess that the reaction around the country was a pretty much universal “Milner?”. Anyway, he came haring out of defence, their bloke wandered past him, stood it up at the back post and their big Russian centre half (who couldn’t look more like a big Russian centre half) headed it agonisingly but let’s be honest very skilfully into the far corner of the net. We played so well, particularly in the first half but as the cliche goes, you’ve got to make the most of those periods when you’re in control of the game and if you don't and it’s only 1-0, there’s always a danger that you’ll let them back into it. Which is what happened.
But there were a lot of positives. The players didn’t look fearful or concerned about carrying the weight of expectation of fifty-million English people on their shoulders. They didn’t looked scarred by past failures mainly because most of them haven’t had any. And Wayne Rooney has now assumed the role of some sort of elder statesman (30!) and looks happier the further back he plays. Perhaps we should try him at centre half. Sure we should have won and didn’t. When you’re winning and the opposition score an equalising goal in the last minute of stoppage time, it’s very depressing. But this was a good performance and we should be proud of them.
I can’t say the crowd trouble at the end was a massive shock. Playing England v Russia in Marseille for an evening kick off was always likely to end in tears and not just because of the gas. The Russian fans have had a nasty hooligan element for quite some time and it was horrible to watch what happened in the stadium. It’s all very well calling for better stewarding but if you were given a bright yellow jacket and paid expenses only, would you take on a gang of drunken Russian nationalist thugs? I’m told a couple of English fans are in a critical condition. Not exactly a celebration of football.
As for our fans, we know that the vast majority are decent people just there to watch the football and have fun. But we’ve always had a hardcore group who like fighting and singing racist songs and the trouble down by the port was entirely predictable. The last fifty years of England underachievement may well have caused us much pain and misery but I’m sure police forces, if not bar owners, around the world have been delighted when we’ve been knocked out early on. I’ve been to England away matches and had tremendous fun (not watching the football obviously but afterwards trying to drown our sorrows) but there’s always been a threat of trouble. In the past, foreign police forces have definitely over-reacted to what we’d consider merely boisterous behaviour but we are definitely not blameless. The policing at this tournament hasn't helped. Our methods of identifying and isolating the ringleaders seem to be more effective than just police in riot gear firing tear gas at the first sign of trouble. But perhaps we should cut the French police a bit of slack. They’ve had a fair bit to deal with recently.
On a much happier note, the Welsh seem to be having fun. Their fans singing the national anthem yesterday was incredible, they played with spirit and fight and they’ve got Gareth Bale. Thursday afternoon is going to be one hell of a match.