As we all know, no World Cup for which England qualify is complete without a spot of host city levelling and, to their credit, many of the fans who travelled to see Glenn Hoddle's side take on Tunisia in their opening game got right into the spirit of things over the competition's opening weekend in Marseille.

Some of the local Tunisian supporters were a match for the English, which is considerably more than could be said for the African team. They were dismally poor and the ease with which Hoddle's side won had the inevitable effect of generating talk about a repeat of '66.

The only thing, the theory went, that would prevent such glory was the coach's failure to realise that Beckham should play. An early indication that this was the case came in game two when, against a much more effective looking Romanian side, the Manchester United midfielder was as helpless (though perhaps not as hapless as one or two of the defenders) as his team-mates to prevent a 2-1 defeat. Fortunately the Colombians were as bad as the Tunisians and England qualified in second place.

Michael Owen, so nearly England's saviour.