A funny old game

I really expected England to get a thorough thumping at Croatia's hands last night, so the 4-1 drubbing dished out to the home side was a pleasant surprise. Walcott is predictably the back page headliner today -- his hat-trick was taken with composure and professionalism -- but the player who made the biggest difference to the side was Emile Heskey. Put in to hold up the ball and worry the Croatian back four with his strength, Emile did exactly that; and although a blunt weapon, he provided some excellent touches and vision in addition to the job assigned. Ultimately it was Heskey's strength, experience, support and drive that allowed Walcott and Rooney to get in the game and on the score sheet. Well done Emile!

I watched the second half of the match at 'the club'.

It's the first time I've ever venture into my local snooker club for anything other than a game of snooker. As expected, it was a great venue to watch football with strangers: partisan, beer-fuelled, chavvie and terrace-like. I loved it!

Apart from the result and some good England performances, what impressed me most about last night's game was the reaction of the Croatian fans when their team were 4-1 down: they were rhythmically chanting, clapping and bouncing up & down as if they were 4-1 up! The stadium was rocking!

4-1 down at Wembley and we'd be ripping up the seats.

Of course there's no mention of the crowd's amazing support for their team in the press today: all that the Croats get is lambasted for the 30 seconds of monkey chants directed at Emile from a tiny number of supporters.

And Setanta Sports is shit btw: terrible camera work, terrible commentary, all round shabby presentation. And you have to pay extra for it. No live England matches on terrestrial. No England match highlights on terrestrial. Well done the FA. A fucking disgrace.