SO HERE WE GO AGAIN...IS ANYONE SURPRISED?

Perhaps the answer to my last post is 'no'...

Things didn't start well for me as I tried desperately to watch the match in Oxfordshire, where we lost our main TV transmitter in a fire a few months ago. Cue pixellated images with Five Live just about keeping me in touch until I remembered that the internet now gets to all corners of the country. Sadly, ITV's website wasn't the best but we were able to just about keep up, although it was akin to watching the event a mile away through a heavily rain-soaked window.

I enjoyed the chat though as lots of semi-literate Americans posted biting comments such as 'yay!' and 'USA, USA!' Mark Twain and Harper Lee must be proud of these people.

Anyway, to the football, that was the usual underwhelming first display from England, so no one should be surprised there. The USA have always been a tricky team to beat as they match our style. The fact that they were delighted to get a draw is still a measure of the difference between the two teams.

We should all despair, however, because the newspapers are going to go into overdrive about the goalkeeper's mistake which let the USA back into the game. I predict no end of diagrams in tomorrow's tabloids showing precisely how Robert Green messed up. I bet none of the sports reporters will own up to their own howlers which, let's be honest, we've all made at some stage in our lives...Get a life guys, it happens.

The bright spots were Emile Hesley, who really played a full part in the first half, and the general run of play in the second half, much of which England dominated. There were hints of a football team there - not many but one or two. Even Wayne Rooney deigned to kick the ball a few times in the second half, which was kind of him.

So England are the real perennial underachievers of the World Cup, what's new. I predict a dodgy result against Algeria - but a result, nonetheless - followed by a resounding win against Slovenia. It always seems to go like that. But that's where all bets should be off. This is not the England team to take us to glory.