A SECOND successive victory, a place in the last 16 and Wayne Rooney taking to the pitch in defiance of a thousand sceptics. You might not think there was a cloud on England’s World Cup horizon if you had tuned in purely for the last seven minutes.
Yielding two goals for Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard, they told us that England do not lack perseverance and perhaps we should dwell there just for a minute because there is not much fun to be had from analysing what went before.
Hard questions will have to be asked - and not all the answers will be found in Rooney’s return - but at least Sven Goran Eriksson has time to ponder his responses. Crouch’s header and Gerrard’s wonderful, curling shot bought him breathing space on a muggy evening in Nuremburg although he will have to use every precious second of it.
The goals bought time for a rusty Rooney to gather some fitness, time for Gary Neville to try to recover from his torn calf, time for Ashley Cole to continue his improvement and, most of all, time for the England coaches to inject some zest into a team that badly requires the element of surprise (back to Rooney again) if it expects to take the autobahn all the way to Berlin.
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England have brought more fans to Germany than any other team which is just as well because they are not making any new converts with their obvious football. Their travelling hordes sung joyously at the end but, dismayed by the ordinariness of what that had gone before, they were only seven minutes from a chorus of deafening jeers.
Those boos were caught in the throat as David Beckham, who will surely top this tournament for assists if England progress, crossed to the far post for Crouch to climb above Brent Sancho. There was no robotic dance - and just as well because it was not the time or the place - but Eriksson will cite it as vindication for his startling decision to replace Michael Owen rather than Crouch with Rooney.
Having lasted only two minutes longer than against Paraguay (and still less than an hour), the Newcastle United forward will again feel that he has been made a scapegoat for England’s failings. While he was guilty of missing a wonderful chance shortly before he was replaced and his body language speaks of someone carrying a bag of troubles, it is hard to believe that England can thrive this summer without seeing something like the best of him.
Gerrard added England’s second goal in the final moments, a sublime left-foot curling shot reward for his indefatigability, while Frank Lampard had so many efforts that Fifa’s statisticians may have struggled to keep count but no one left this sweaty bowl wondering how it took England so long to score.
They were pondering how England could possibly hope to win this tournament unless Rooney truly is as fit as the independent experts claim him to be. Rooney only had to warm up to set a chant rolling around the Franken Stadium like a Mexican wave but we 32 minutes was not enough to assess him properly.
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There was plenty of time to examine Crouch and a horribly miscued volley shortly before half-time had sent the England fans scurrying to quick, and damning, conclusions.
Moments before that, Frank Lampard had uncharacteristically shot over the crossbar after an astute set-up by Owen but England had also gone within a whisker of falling behind moments before the interval when, not for the first, time Paul Robinson punched thin air. Fortunately, John Terry was on hand to clear.
It was not the only intervention that he was required to make and Eriksson decided that he had seen enough of his starting XI when, after a rare piece of zesful play down the left, Ashley Cole rolled the ball into Crouch. Flicking the ball up with his back to goal, he sent a weak bicycle kick over the crossbar.
Within seconds, Rooney was stripping for action but expectations that Crouch would make way were to prove unfounded. Instead it was Owen who trooped off disconsolately. If that was a surprise, even more so was the sight of Beckham going to full-back in place of Jamie Carragher as Aaron Lennon made his first competitive appearance on the right wing.
A cynic might say that the Swede would do anything to keep his captain on the pitch but, in theory, the move made perfect sense given that, as they laboured for a goal, losing Beckham’s right foot would have deprived them of their best weapon. And so it was to prove as, after more squandered chances, he crossed for Crouch to head in.
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By then, England had endured another stomach churning moment when Cornell Glenn almost wriggled free but Gerrard’s goal provided Eriksson’s men with an upbeat finish.
The fans celebrated wildly, including those who had come dressed as St George, complete with chain mail armour. For too long, England had played with similar mobility but another win, and a clean sheet, gives them the chance to improve. They will have to, whoever their opponents in the last 16.