AT THE end of the 1998 World Cup, the peerless Des Lynam signed off the BBC’s coverage with an unforgettable reading of Rudyard Kipling’s “If” over footage of scenes from the tournament. We’re all familiar with the plea to treat the “two impostors”, triumph and disaster, just the same, yet many of us are unable to do this. In football this is especially true. This is odd given that, passionate as we are, we know full well none of it really amounts to a string of beans anyway.

Everything, especially in tournament football, has to be brilliant or terrible. In England’s first two games of this European championship, they were judged to be brilliant in narrowly beating Croatia, and terrible in not beating Scotland. By the time you read this, you will know, if you care to know, how England will have fared in their subsequent matches. Obviously, I do not know how they will go, but I am quite certain the general feeling will be that everything has been either a triumph or a disaster.