So, the England squad will take the next plane home from Euro 2004.

But we leave the field of play with our heads held high, with the satisfaction of knowing that we are the indisputable victors of tonight's contest.  The Portuguese know it, every England supporter knows it, and so does the once highly-regarded, now discredited referee, Urs Meier.

We scored two perfectly good goals in normal time, our opponents scored one; that's the simple, incontrovertible arithmetic of tonight's game.  Only incompetent, cowardly refereeing defeated us, certainly not the losing side, the Portuguese, who through no fault of their own must go into their next game in dishonour, knowing that they have no genuine right to take further part in this tournament.

The England team wore black armbands tonight in honour of an England fan who was killed yesterday in Lisbon.  They might have been for Meier's reputation.

Consider this, though.  In a very real sense, England can still win Euro 2004.  If Portugal should 'win' this tournament in the only narrow, empty, merely technical sense that remains to them, then we in England - as the only nation in the competition to have been eliminated without having been beaten in the knockout round, and having beaten the official 'winners' - will have EVERY RIGHT to assert ourselves as the true European champions.

We're still in it.  COME ON ENGLAND!!