Our brave Lions will roar again
I WAS queueing for coffee at the train station on Thursday morning behind a hungover young couple bemoaning England’s World Cup defeat.
“I wish they had a time machine,” sighed the 20-something woman, who’d watched a Horizon documentary about the possibility of such a device.
“England could go back to 1-0 up and Jordan would stop those two Croatian goals. I don’t want this to be over.”
“It’s not,” her bloke said. “We’ll win it in 2022. And they did us proud.”
That one conversation seemed to sum up the national mood when the Three Lions’ Russian run finally hit the buffers.
The fans who stayed behind in the Moscow stadium that night belted out Oasis hit Don’t Look Back In Anger.
And even yesterday, after England lost in the third place playoff, there was still no sign of the old backlash.
Because this diverse team – 11 of the 23 are black or mixed race – have united the nation in optimism and left a legacy of positivity and hope.
A feeling that glory is just down the line – at Euro 2020 and the Qatar World Cup two years later.
Harry Kane’s men carried themselves with maturity and dignity beyond their years, conducted by their waistcoatwearing gaffer Gareth Southgate.
And, even in defeat, their attitude is convincing fans that England really are on a different track.
After the semi-final Southgate admitted the players were “desolate” and yesterday they must have felt drained. But he says the nationwide support shows them that losing no longer means “misery, regret and recrimination”.
Our Three Lions know they can’t turn back time and must look to the future.
What matters, Southgate told them, are “the moments in which you continue to play and have to keep being brave”.
And that sends a powerful message to 20-somethings everywhere about long-term ambition over instant gratification.
I don’t know where the couple I’d overheard ended their train journey on Thursday.
But I’d like to think it was in Nottingham, where the station departure boards also spoke for a nation. “It’s coming home DELAYED,” read the message. “Expected arrival 2022. “You did us proud England.”
I’M hooked on the brilliant new BBC thriller Keeping Faith.
I say “new” but the eight-part drama actually aired on iplayer earlier this year, in Welsh and English.
It won a cult following and word of mouth alone drew ten million viewers, so the Beeb switched the unexpected hit to normal telly.
Broadchurch star Eve Myles, 39, is made for the role of feisty solicitor and mum-of-three Faith, whose hubby
goes missing. And Demi Letherby, who plays her nine-year-old daughter Alys is incredible – a star in the making.
But the real eye-catchers are the Welsh scenery and Faith’s trusty yellow anorak. Fans have given the jacket its own Twitter page and shops in Wales are doing a roaring trade in replicas.
Perhaps they should sell waterproof mascara too as I suspect the series is going to be a weepy. But I’m definitely Keeping Faith with the other anoraks.