England beat Tunisia in World Cup last gasp drama.

England beat Tunisia in World Cup last game drama.

At long last. Finally, the ghosts of World Cup opening games for England have been banished to the touchlines and hopefully for good. How do those hardy English supporters do it? Every four years they subject themselves to the excruciating agony and purgatory of struggle, pain, rejection, disappointment and dare anybody say it, a sense of alienation from the team. This is turning into a repetitive cracked record that may just as well be a regular occurrence.

Last night though there was a classic re-enactment of that famous World Cup moment when England keeper Rob Green fumbled a lousy shot from an American player and gifted the USA the kind of equaliser that maybe even they must have thought they were imagining. While not quite as calamitous as that careless blunder, England were still in a lock down with Tunisia, trapped in the vice of a 1-1 scoreline that must have been haunting everybody and shocking others.

 Not another World Cup horror show surely they thought. But ah yes, this is England and the sense of embarrassment which has come to visit the England football team on too many occasions came back again and some of us were also resigned to England's fate with well over half an hour of the game to go. We checked our watches and the time was ebbing, slipping away and England began to look like men whose brand new car had completely run out of petrol.

In the beginning it had all so looked fine and dandy for Gareth Southgate's young, puffed out chests, patriotic players. They had flown from the starting blocks like Olympic sprinters, scurried after their opponents as if their life had depended on it and looked as if they just wanted to finish off the game in no time at all. They were sharp, positive, alert, receptive to any advice that Southgate had given them, generally bright, bubbly and buoyant with the kind of devil may care approach to the game that perhaps we weren't really expecting.

And yet last night's game began with a major concern. By the banks of the River Volga England were under attack by swarms of midges, flying persistently around the likes of Raheem Sterling as if determined to throw England off the scent. But this was no night for butterflies in the stomach and on another first night for England in another World Cup, certainty and assurance was followed by chronic hesitation, palpitating panic and a dose of the collywobbles. Woe England and World Cups! When are they going to remember their lines and not fumble around the living rooms of world football like Victorians with candles in their hands as darkness falls?

 Still, as was commonly acknowledged by most England followers, this was not entirely unexpected. We are constantly reminded of the fact that whenever England reach a World Cup or European Championship they lose their keys, their balance, their  concentration and any sense of where they are and who they are. Everybody trotted out that same old tune over and over again. There are no expectations except modest expectations and besides we've only been repeating the same sentence for at least 52 years. You suspect that Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Bobby Charlton are sipping a satisfying glass of wine confident that 1966 will remain planted in the subconscious for ever.

The fact remains that against Tunisia yesterday evening England were still a mass of contradictions, initially in the ascendancy but then falling away into a kind of drunken stupor in the second half when somebody told them that Tunisia had equalised. England would eventually become sloppy, idiosyncratic. wayward, unreliable and completely lacking any kind of alternative thinking when the winning goal would not come their way.

For the first half an hour though England were irrepressible, a team with clarity, fluency, flow and decisiveness. There was a crispness and precision to their passing that truly stopped us in our tracks. They began to pass the ball with the fluid accuracy of a team who knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going. There was a real sense of movement, speed of thought and a heightened awareness of the occasion itself.

And once again we turned to England boss Gareth Southgate, all smart blue waistcoat, calm, always rational thinking, never flustered, angry, unnerved and seemingly oblivious to all the fuss and hype around him. Southgate continues to convey the air of a building society manager, always friendly, easy going, delighted to see new customers, willing to engage in any discussion about the game. Here was a man with a thick beard,  polished vowels and consonants in his speech and an excellent dress sense. He is a sensible and admirably articulate man with a thorough knowledge of the game's vital inner mechanics, manners and etiquette.

Last night Southgate stood in his dug out rather like a man surveying the English countryside, standing proudly on a mist shrouded hill, eyes gazing out on a stunning vista of lush green meadows that look like bedroom quilts from the air. Then his mind absorbs the sights and sounds of whirling wind turbines and cormorants flying in perfect formation around stern and unyielding lighthouses.

For that first crucial first half an hour in the first half, the naturally gifted Jordan Henderson, truly one of the England's most stabilising of influences, dropped anchor and then brought chaos and order where mayhem and jittery nerves may have existed in this English side. Henderson is the very epitome of a master craftsman, chiselling out well carved passes to all areas of the pitch and growing in stature as the game progressed. It was hard to believe that Henderson, who had been England captain for a while, could only hand on the baton to Harry Kane. Then again there is something of the Tony Currie, Trevor Brooking, Ray Wilkins and Glen Hoddle about Henderson that continues to impress.

Then there was Raheem Sterling who has just enjoyed a sensational season with Manchester City, not only winning the Premier League title by a country mile but also rapidly growing as a winger and forward. Of course Sterling has blistering pace and acceleration to burn but then you look at him in moments of self indulgence and you wonder if he may be trying too hard. He wanders and roams around  the flanks and into the centre of the pitch like a man who never quite knows whether to stick or twist at pontoon.

Sterling's back story of course is both painfully moving and deeply affecting, a man whose father was tragically shot when the youngster was quite possibly too young to understand. Then there was the absurd tittle tattle about that gun tattoo on his leg which now seems like a publicity stunt. But Sterling certainly has what it takes to progress and evolve as an England player and the ability to run at defenders fearlessly surely warrants far more attention than any gun tattoo.

Dele Alli of Tottenham had one of those energetic and fully committed games for England which can only bode well for the future. Alli does look like a goal opportunist, breaking forward imperiously into the right areas at the right time. Sadly, an early injury to Alli took much of the impetus and momentum from deep that only he can generate. Alli remains a vital attacking link in any of England's attacking approach play.

For Jessie Lingard of Manchester United the tale is a similar one. Lingard could count himself dreadfully unlucky in the number of goal scoring attempts that England mustered during the second half. Lingard does look the genuine article but you did get the impression that he was desperate to be joined by his United colleague Marcus Rashford who towards the end of the game came on a sub. Lingard is eminently capable of scoring goals, arriving at the opportune moments to score goals as and when the mood takes him.

With John Stones and Harry Maguire towers of strength at the back for England and Kieran Trippier harrying and hustling forward in support, the bolts and nuts are completely secure for England at the back. Kyle Walker, who was unfortunately at fault for the Tunisia penalty remains one of the quickest and sprightliest of full backs charging forward like a bull out of the gate.

Ashley Young although now at the latter end of his career at Manchester United, can still manoeuvre himself into position for neatly delivered crosses and isn't afraid of mixing it with the younger generation. Young was always available for the right weight of pass and spent most of the evening quietly minding his business, hovering with intent and linking effectively with the rest of the team.

But then came the winning goals for England which had frustratingly eluded them for so long and so many years. The irony - not lost any England fan- was that 20 years ago England had won their first game of the World Cup in France. That day Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes were on the score sheet and 20 years later it seemed as though England were still dwelling on that result like a reflective philosopher who doesn't quite understand society and people.

The facts are these though. A high, inswinging corner to the far post seemed to hang in the air for a minute or two and after roughly quarter of an hour England were in front. John Stones, wonderfully dominant in the air rose handsomely to head the ball ferociously towards the goal, the Tunisian keeper could only get a hand to palm out Stones well directed header and Harry Kane, that hungriest of strikers. tapped the ball home simply for England's opening goal.

From that point England seemed to bombard the Tunisian goal from all sorts of acute angles and passes that were almost mathematically correct. All over the pitch England were hunting in packs, spreading the ball around with a short, short, quick quick tempo before pouncing on their opponents with lightning breakaways.

Briefly England were brought back to equality when Kyle Walker seemed to bundle over his defender quite accidentally. Fergani Sassi clipped the penalty past a diving England keeper in Jordan Pickford who did well to get a hand to the ball but couldn't quite to get to it. It was 1-1 and remained so for much of the match.

England started the second half as if still suspended in a state of shock. Was this the USA game all over again or worse had Iceland come back to darken England's corridors. Subsequently England never really re-established the total control they had enjoyed at the kick off. They were slightly ragged, leg weary and almost entirely lacking in any of the rhythm that had accompanied their earlier efforts.

Then, deep into injury time and with most of the England supporters about to sigh their annoyance, irritation and disapproval at the prospect of another England draw that man Harry Kane, England's very polite skipper joined the rest of his defence for a corner. Another highly propelled, sky high corner came swinging in yet again and this time Harry Maguire, Leicester's reliable strong man, nodded forward towards the far post where Kane, so cleverly placed, turned his neck muscles to their fullest extent and flicked the ball in with his head too easily for England's thoroughly merited winner.

And so it was that England had conquered first night nerves, stage fright, drying in front of a huge England following on the terraces and then remembering their lines. There is still a long road to travel for these well scrubbed, well adjusted and infectiously enthusiastic England players. But once they have settled and recognised that all those Russian Cossack dancers are just trying to humour us then England may find that Red Square isn't so bad at all. This may be the right moment to think about negotiating the Panama canal on Sunday. Panama on Sunday has a certain ring to it.