The North Stand area an hour before kick-off was filling up quite rapidly, but I still got a pie and a pint within a couple of minutes which seemed reasonable value by modern prices. The old photos and Attila’s poem Goldstone Ghost made you want to spend some time looking around rather than just head straight for the seating area. The sight of Harvey’s being poured also gave the new stadium a feeling of local heritage.

Walking into the stand itself was a momentous occasion as I looked around at the towering West Stand and behind me at the vast screen at the back of the North Stand. The pitch looked a lush green and the slanting design of the stadium gave the AMEX a unique style. This was a real sensory experience, soon to be followed by the colourful chanting by the North Stand faithful. As the floodlights came on there was a real sense of theatre at the AMEX and Ashley Barnes certainly didn’t fluff his lines as he executed a fine penalty.

The game itself was not a classic by any means, as the Gills came with a game plan for the Albion. However, another victory at the AMEX, round two of the cup and around 16000 fans leaving their first floodlit game happy is what counted in the end.

As we arrived prime seats were still available, but joy was followed immediately by disappointment as we had just missed Defoe’s goal. In the space of minutes though I got into the game and was impressed with England’s attacking football. It only took a couple of minutes after my arrival for Gerrard to place a low shot towards the right hand corner before being palmed wide by Handanovicv. This gave me a sense of optimism that a possible mauling was on the cards. In what followed, England produced a more purposeful performance then in recent games and certainly the best performance since the qualifiers.

However and there is always a however with England. While the country rejoiced with qualification as the final whistle blew the reality of England’s predicament emerged. The yanks injury time goal completely changed the outlook for England.

The pundits have said that to win the world cup you must beat teams such as Germany. Yes that is true, but England are slowly developing confidence in the world cup. A second round tie against Ghana would have offered a stern test, but one where England could have been the victors, setting up a clash against either Uruguay or South Korea in the quarters. Instead we have Germany, then maybe Argentina and then possibly Brazil.

Let’s face the facts; we have progressed to the quarter finals in recent years when we have had average opposition. In 2006 our second round match was against Ecuador, in 2002 it was Denmark, in 1990 it was Belgium and in 1986 Paraguay. In 1998 as we all know it was that epic against Argentina and while I would like to see a similar performance, I sense there will be a similar result against Germany.

So England’s lack of potency up front has seriously dented any chance of further progression. I hope to be proved wrong, but Germany look slick in their passing and attacking for such a young side. The fact that England has a talented bunch of individuals does not disguise the fact that we lack coherence as a team.

I hope Der Kaiser is wrong on Sunday and the boys do us proud. If we should lose though, let us as a nation try and lower our expectations and shelve the video highlights of 1966 until after we win a world cup again.