Far-from exceptional English test our patience

THEY’RE not making this any easier for us. Those of us well disposed towards England at the 2018 World Cup have had a challenging few days since they beat Tunisia.

The problem is that great swathes of English opinion, as conveyed through the media, saw the victory as anything but jumpy or uncertain.

Gary Lineker, a man whose enormous levels of self-satisfaction could well peak with him licking himself during a broadcast, declared the display ‘exceptional’.

It really wasn’t. It was very good for a bit, then careless, and then later it was fringed by panic.

Those of us in this country who find instinctive antiEnglishness tiresome at best, and a symptom of incurable ignorance in its more severe outbreaks, haven’t been helped by this gathering English optimism.

It can be too easily misread as arrogance, and has often tipped into that state. This was especially so in those many instances when England’s stuttering win was compared favourably to what Belgium had done to Panama only hours earlier when, after a hesitant opening, the Belgians were excellent.

England should beat the Panamanians this afternoon, a victory that will usher them towards the last 16.

They go with the best wishes of many of us. There’s no guarantee that will last.