Woah! That is one helluva improvement.....

The whole of England was on tenterhooks today. For today was England's last chance (after two truly dismal performances) to get through to the last 16 countries competing in the World Cup football tournament.

As I have explained before, I am not normally a football fan, but experiencing the World Cup is something else... it has the power to change the whole mood of our nation..... and that makes it exciting. Woo hoo! In fact businesses all over the country had either let staff finish early, or rigged up screens in the workplace to make sure that everyone was able to watch the game.

The England versus Slovenia match was due to start at 3pm, so after spending the day in London (more on that later), I hotfooted it back up the motorway, and arrived at home in time for kick-off.

Pic.No.1. Blimey, can England do it this time?

For the first ten minutes of the match, England looked shaky, and I couldn't help but think 'here we go again', after remembering the fact that England were booed off the pitch following their last performance.

But after ten minutes, things changed, and all of a sudden, England looked like they knew what they were doing. Instead of being a living example of Chaos Theory, they appeared to have a plan. Cool, that's certainly an exciting development in any sport.

Pic.No.2. Come on England! Play as best you can, and don't relax, not even for a moment!

England continued to hot up and take command of the game, and before I could say 'Naughty George, stop bloody woofing', a magnificent sequence of passes led to England's first goal of the tournament.

Pic.No.3. Jermain Defoe - Well done sir, I say ..... well done to you

Needless to say, the England crowd went beserk, and augmenting that, I could hear the sound of people in my village cheering... it wafted in through my open windows and made the atmosphere truly electric.

I won't go into too much detail, but suffice to say that England lived up to their reputation as Lions, even though they did keep their fans on the edge of their seats for the remainder of the game. It was a truly marvellous performance, and even though the final score was 1-0, they could have easily scored another three goals.

 Pic.No.4. How sweet does the score look?

England were through to the final sixteen, and the whole country was going ballistic with joy. Every TV station was broadcasting clips of fans dancing, crying, partying, celebrating, and loads of other things ending in 'ing'. It's been a veritable roller-coaster.

Another thing I thought was quite interesting, was that for three hours this afternoon, roads were deserted, emails stopped, and the phone didn't ring....... long may the World Cup continue!