Are we on the road to greater things now?

England 1 Columbia 1 (4-3 penalties).

This was a bad-tempered game with more wrestling that proper football. My thoughts were that the referee was quite lenient until a foul was done in front of his very nose (even though there were many other fouls he decided not to notice), and then he had no other choice but to point to the spot. Overall though, the referee let the Columbians get away with murder.

Before the kick off both sets of fans enjoyed each other's banter and they got involved in each other's singalongs and drum beats.

Even though England fans were outnumbered, it didn’t stop them raising their voices sky high so that the TV viewer and everybody around them could hear their chants for miles.

Anyway, we got our penalty, and Kane fired away. For the rest of the match, it was battles all the way, until a few minutes to go and Mina scored the equaliser. Heads dropped.

An extra half hour was presented to the players, and you could plainly see that both teams were tired and making mistakes. Finally, the whistle was blown for the completion of the two-hour battle royal. It was penalties, penalties that England feared, as they had a lousy – or non-existent – record in that Russian roulette drama.

So, we all took a few minutes breather. Then up pops Harry, we waited, holding our breath, and then the cheers go up as Harry scores. The fans go wild, here and back home. One-nil to us.

Radamel Falcao is the next to place his ball on the penalty spot and scores.  The Columbians are going crazy. They’ve equalised. The United striker is next up, and Rashford scores and we are back in the lead. 2-1.

Luis Muriel takes his turn for his team and scores. England’s turn again and Jordan Henderson steps up and… the England players and fans – all over the world – drop their heads as the ball doesn’t go in. You could see the pain in his face. We all dreaded that moment and were thinking “here we go again, another early trip back home… are we jinxed or what?”

Mateus Uribe steps up and hits the crossbar, and the shocked fans on both sides look on in surprise/ horror. They couldn’t believe their luck. Next up is Harry’s teammate Tripper to take the penalty. He scores. The fans are crying, laughing and hugging each other. Some, you could have sworn, were trying to make love to each other, but then again it could just be the sun beating down on us and playing tricks.

Carlos Bacca steps up and shoots, and Pickford saves. Is this really happening, I hear some scream. “He saved, “Pickford is a genius,” they cry. “Give him a medal, or knighthood” some even suggested.

Last to step up is Tottenham’s Eric Dier, you could sense the weight on his shoulders. Was Dier going into the history books as another English player who failed and sent England home early? But no, he scores and the world erupts and astonishment on everybody’s face. We broke the jinx, “we are coming home,” they sing. English players dive on each other, Southgate grabs the nearest person to him and hugs him. The English fans are crying and can’t believe what they’ve just witnessed. We are through to the next round.

The match wasn’t a great advertisement, but we did the job. Columbians came to wrestle and thought they could intimidate us. But all they achieved was an early bath and a reputation as a bunch of foulers and cheats. But to be fair, the English players showed their good nature and shook the hands of their abusers.

At that moment in time, the world was/ is England’s oyster. Paper after paper, interviews after interviews and TV shots after TV shots are continuously projected into our path. Even political shows such as the Daily Politics and Newsnight jump on the bandwagon and their political guests put their hostilities to each other to one side and unit in talking up the England boys and their chances of going further. It seemed that if you are English, then you were in the limelight.

All this was happening while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland looked on stunned and miserable, with some, I must admit, congratulate their nemesis and wishing them well.

Fans, players, media and basically everybody spent the next couple of days discussing what they had witnessed or were apart off, and in particular, the Tottenham boys were ahead of that discussion.

If you are a Tottenham fan, then you had that extra thing to be proud of. Not only was England in the next round, but it was because of the Tottenham boys that helped propel them there.

This Saturday England faces Sweden in a lively and exciting battle for higher glory. They say 24 million viewers witnessed England’s victory on that Tuesday. I can see the figure going even higher as we – hopefully – progress through the competition. We are England, we are Tottenham. We are the world. God save the Queen, God save Tottenham Hotspur.

Don Scully