Onwards and upwards

Well Friday night almost encapsulated everything about being an England fan, except if it had, the ending would have been far more miserable.

It could have been very different, however. As the storm clouds came over the Olympic Stadium in Kiev shortly before kick off, the fear was that we were going to suffer from the same deluge that had recently hit Donetsk, forcing the match between Ukraine and France to be abandoned, albeit for just one hour.

Roy Hodgson and the English support had more than the weather on their mind mid-way through the second half as Olof Mellberg scored a brace to put the Swedes into an improbable lead. But then Theo Walcott sprang from the bench to rescue the Three Lions and condemn Sweden to elimination as we now look optimistically towards playing Ukraine on Tuesday.

‘You're going home with the Irish’ was sang in the direction of the 20,000 Swedish supporters, outnumbering their English counterparts by almost three to one. This was not a feeling we are used to. Normally it is us who are the dominant force within the stadium. Even in Portugal in 2004, in their own stadium, we had more fans than our opponents. But here it was a sea of yellow and blue. That's the trouble: even the Ukrainians within the crowd seemed to be on the side of our opponents.

A fan's eye view: nervous times for the England faithful

It all used to be so different. Not since the cost of these trips became so extortionate that only the affluent Scandinavians can travel in their droves. And even they are restricted to a budgeted style camping arrangement.

Though there is the argument that the England team are so short in quality these days that I even brought my boots in the hope of a late call up, this could only partially explain the lack of numbers.

There is a feeling among the team’s support that we are more than happy to be here and a little resentful towards some sectors of the British media regarding the over-hyped violent nature of the host nations. This has not been in evidence whilst we have been here and long may it continue. ‘We’re not going home, we’re not going home, we’re not going, we’re not going, we’re not going home’… not til Tuesday at least.