If you'd dared to address this to a master the outcome would have been a flogging as opposed to a mere whacking. Mr David Beckham acknowledging the reaction of a section of English fans to his performance in England's match against Portugal in Eindhoven. That's how good it was and I reckon David Beckham had a marvellous game. It was absolutely scandalous,' said Ray Clemence, a member of England's coaching team. England eventually lost.
Sport tends to produce results like that.
It has been thus since the Olympics in ancient Greece and as the terrace yobbos have contributed nothing apart from drinking, painting their faces and singing discordant and inappropriate songs about Britain's former mastery of the seas with a few rundown frigates, it makes us look ridiculous in foreign eyes. I am delighted the authorities have not rusticated him for a game or even two. This isn't war. We've been through that twice in the past century. Perhaps the media disappointment was that there was no spectacular punch-up in Eindhoven's city centre.