No one is going to be the slightest bit interested in reading about the Euro 2020 final, so I’m not going to write about it. Here’s the BBC match report if you insist.
Italy, it’s been great having you back on the major tournament stage. You were missed when you didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup. There’s something about that rock solid defence, attacking flair and blue shirts that appeals to the casual football fan.
But you can’t read a script can you? This wasn’t meant to be your time. You’ve had your time, over and over, in the past. This was meant to be England’s day. England had a story to complete. It’s not your fault that Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bakayo Saka took three absolutely horrendous penalties, granted. But come on.
Euro 2020 has been a great tournament – but it had the wrong ending.
England’s impressive young team made the international break more bearable
I’m never pleased when the international break comes around. They force an irritating halt to domestic football. In September, October and November they make the beginning of the season a stop-start affair; at times like this they make us all pause when our clubs have important matters to attend to.
That this one should be at the Easter weekend, traditionally a packed four days in the league calendar, made it even less welcome. Norwich City’s back-to-back clean sheets, first win since early January and slice of fortune with the result of the Tyne-Wear derby would have to be put to one side for a fortnight, until the huge game against Newcastle.
In the meantime, England would play friendlies against Germany and the Netherlands as part of their preparations for Euro 2016. Like many, I wasn’t expecting much. Germany are the world champions and, in Berlin, you’d expect them to sweep England aside.
This is the reason why what actually happened last night was such a pleasant surprise. From the start, there was an energy about the England team. They were closing the Germans down very well. We are so used to seeing us sit back and watch the opposition pass the ball around in these prestige friendlies, but last night the hosts were not given any time on the ball before a red shirt was trying to hound it off them.
Germany had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside, but hey, it’s about time England had some luck (Frank Lampard anyone?). The Germans did go ahead when Toni Kroos took advantage of goalkeeper Jack Butland’s hindered mobility to fire one in at his near post. I am certain that, had he not done damage to himself seconds earlier, the Stoke keeper would have made a routine save.
In the second half, England were continuing to impress, finding each other well with passes and causing their rivals problems with some clever moves. It seemed unjust when Mario Gomez jumped between Gary Cahill and Nathaniel Clyne to put Germany 2-0 up. It was a scoreline that would have given the ‘same old England’ brigade ammunition but did not tell the story of the match.
What England were doing was making chances but wasting them. In the end, they had 19 shots on goal – 9 more than Germany – and 6 of them were on target. The Germans only hit the target twice in the whole game, and with stereotypical efficiency, scored two goals.
Harry Kane provided the spark for an England comeback by reigning in an untidy Jordan Henderson corner and fooled two defenders with a Cruyff turn – so apt in this week of all weeks – before striking it into the corner of the net with pinpoint accuracy.
Harry Kane sends a German defender for ice cream as he scores England’s first goal in Berlin
With less than twenty minutes to go, Roy Hodgson introduced Jamie Vardy in place of Danny Welbeck. He had been on the pitch for 198 seconds when his audacious backheel from Clyne’s cross wrong-footed Manuel Neuer and brought the scores level. Vardy became the first Leicester City player since Gary Lineker in 1985 to score a goal for England.
All but the harshest of England supporters would have gladly taken a draw away from the Olympiastadion having been two goals behind with 25 minutes to play. However, in stoppage time, Jordan Henderson finally got one of his corners right and Eric Dier thumped it in with his head to stun the world champions and give England a quite brilliant victory.
Eric Dier completed the comeback to stun the world champions Germany
I will not get carried away. You can tell me that it was a friendly, that it was an ‘experimental’ German side, that it was a fluke, whatever – it was still a performance to get a little bit excited about. We are not going to win the Euros this summer. We might, however, do ourselves proud while we are there and build towards future tournaments with genuine promise.
The reason for this optimism is from the players involved in Berlin. We knew Joe Hart would be missing after getting injured in last weekend’s Manchester derby, but no one was particularly worried because we knew that Jack Butland was a more than able deputy. Butland was injured himself in the first half of the match, but Southampton’s Fraser Forster was perfectly capable of filling in. Goalkeeper wise, England have rarely had three as strong as those at the same time.
In defence, England look to have sorted out the full back positions. Nathaniel Clyne and Danny Rose appeared right at home in the back four, Rose in particular with some excellent tackles, and both were willing to race forward and mount an attack. Gary Cahill is clearly the odd one out, and you would expect John Stones to replace him at some point in the near future and form a partnership with Chris Smalling.
Eric Dier did an excellent job of protecting the defence and demonstrated his ability to pick out a forward pass. I personally have questions over the Liverpool pair of Henderson and Adam Lallana. Lallana hasn’t had a great season but has the ability, Henderson I wonder if he’s actually just rather ordinary and is mostly ‘a great man to have in the dressing room’. He missed a glorious chance, having his shot blocked by a defender when the keeper had been taken out of the equation, and I wonder if Ross Barkley has more of a place in this team than him.
The outstanding player for England on a night of very good performances was Dele Alli. It was easy to forget that the Tottenham midfielder is a few weeks away from his 20th birthday. Rarely has an Englishman looked so comfortable on the international stage so early on in their career. His dribbling, his passing and his sheer will to be involved and get on the ball made him more than fit to share a stage with the world champions on the night. He will need careful management but we look to have a real star on our hands here.
Dele Alli was magnificent on a great night for England
Danny Welbeck often gets a raw deal from the fans but he worked hard for his country, getting into good positions and never allowing the defenders to rest, always niggling away at them. His finishing ability is undoubted, and he has a definite role to play in the squad. Talk of finishing ability – Harry Kane is one of the best we’ve had in that respect for a long time, and Jamie Vardy continues to ride on the crest of a wave. Four years ago, Vardy was playing for Fleetwood Town.
Then consider what England have in reserve. Leicester’s Danny Drinkwater was in the squad for the first time, rewarded for a sublime campaign for the Premier League leaders, and, in the end, was untried. He will surely get some time on the pitch against the Netherlands on Tuesday. Daniel Sturridge didn’t make it off the bench. There is still Wayne Rooney to come back from injury too.
This is a very young team too. Take a look at the ages of the starting eleven in this game:
Jack Butland – 23
Nathaniel Clyne – 24
Gary Cahill – 30
Chris Smalling – 26
Danny Rose – 25
Eric Dier – 22
Jordan Henderson – 25
Adam Lallana – 27
Dele Alli – 19
Danny Welbeck – 25
Harry Kane – 22
If Cahill is indeed replaced by 21-year-old Stones, this brings the average age down even further. This is a squad of players who will be around for a while. 30-year-old Rooney would be something of an old man amongst that lot, but might not be the worst player to have as a vastly experienced captain to guide them.
Four of the starters last night were Tottenham players. I think it showed too, they were linking up with each other superbly. It can only help the national team if the core of the side all play for the same club. Three were Liverpool players, and just one was a Manchester United man. How times change.
I can honestly say that last night was the best I’d seen England play in a very long time and it felt slightly strange to actually be enjoying watching an international friendly. The future looks bright and if they can play like that more often, maybe I won’t be quite so annoyed when the international break rolls around. Maybe.
Remember my Durham holiday photo challenge? That stemmed from me trying to avoid getting bored during a week off work. Well – I’ve had another week off.
I always try to have a week off just before the Christmas rush starts, but I’m not very good at resting or doing nothing. So last week I decided to use one of my free days to go in search of something that had fascinated me for ages. I went looking for the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.
I had not been to London for a proper day out since last December. I’d been there for the play-off final at Wembley, but this was my first visit to the city itself in almost a year. As such, after getting off the train at Liverpool Street I wandered around for a while, taking in my surroundings and the big buildings before making my way anywhere.
Eventually I went to Canada Water station and took the London Overground to Crystal Palace. When you come from Norwich you are used to everything being pretty close by – it took about half an hour to get from Canary Wharf to Crystal Palace! When the train finally arrived, I walked out of the station and was immediately filled with hope.
When you’ve come all this way looking for Dinosaurs, this was a pleasing sign to find.
I was definitely on the right track.
In case you don’t know, the Crystal Palace was a huge glass building that was built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. When the exhibition closed, the Crystal Palace was moved from Hyde Park to Penge Common in South London. It had such an impact that the area it stood in itself became known as Crystal Palace.
The land surrounding the Crystal Palace was landscaped and became Crystal Palace Park. The Palace burned down in 1936, but you can still see where it would have been. And one of the elements of the original park that still remain are the dinosaurs.
I followed the path and got my first glimpse of the sculptures.
You don’t get those in Eaton Park.
These models have been in place since 1854. 161 years! They were the first attempt to make large scale models of dinosaurs in the world, and were designed using the Victorians’ best ideas of what they looked like -they were made a full six years before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Scientifically speaking, we now consider the sculptures to be rather inaccurate. But for me that just makes them all the more interesting.
The Iguanodon models, the Park’s most famous residents.
A close up of Iguanodon.
There are not just dinosaur sculptures there. The idea was to make models of extinct animals from different eras. The dinosaurs were one part of that.
This is a Megaloceros. You can probably guess it is related to the deer.
It was well worth the trip out to see them. It takes a bit of extra time to get there, and it’s a little bit off the tourist track, but there is plenty to see out there. I might even come back when it’s a bit warmer.
After ticking the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs off my ‘to do’ list, I headed back to central London and did the usual things tourists do when they are in central London.
The London Eye is ready for Christmas.
Parliament, taken from the other side of Westminster Bridge.
It was then time to head home. And I managed to make it back, despite Greater Anglia’s best efforts. My train back to Norwich was cancelled so I had to make a detour to Cambridge in order to get home! I didn’t mind that much though, it had still been a decent day.
I have another week off work in January – I wonder what I’ll get up to then?
I’ve been spending a few days in Durham. While Norwich City do in fact play away at Newcastle this weekend (about 18 miles away) my visit is unrelated. I had a week off work coming up, did not want to be at home crawling up the walls with boredom, and my godmother – who works up here – kindly offered me the chance to come and stay at her place.
My Durham Cathedral selfie.
Last night, while out for a walk, I had an idea. I asked my godmother to come up with a list of things that she wanted me to go and photograph the next day – a sort of treasure hunt. When I got up this morning, I had a Skype message from her containing this list:
Whatever is up both of those alleyways (alleyways we had seen on our walk)
The Sanctuary knocker
Harry Potter style cloisters
A cathedral made of Lego
A poem on a stone bridge with the cathedral in the background
A piece of rubbish in an inappropriate place
A large map of the UK embedded in the pavement, made up of coloured stone in a geological manner
Tracy Franklin’s studio
A nice pile of washing up on the draining board
A cup of coffee in your hand
Around midday today, I was ready with my phone to start the challenge. Here’s how I got on.
Whatever is up both of those alleyways
Durham is a very old city. It’s full of narrow streets, listed buildings and hidden passages. On our walk last night, my godmother and I came to one of these hidden passages.
The entrance to one of the alleyways.
It was getting quite late and the alleyway looked rather spooky in the dark, it has to be said. In the comfort of daylight, I headed up the steps and saw this ahead of me:
This is what was up one of those alleyways.
When we had been looking at the entrance last night, a man in a suit strolled past us and went up there. It felt rather narrow and a bit eerie even during the day, so I would certainly not have gone up there at night like he did! The other alleyway I was tasked to explore looked like this:
The other alleyway.
It turns out that this alleyway merges with the other one and they both take you just outside Pizza Express!
The Sanctuary knocker
In case you don’t know, a Sanctuary knocker (or ‘haogday’ but that’s just a weird name for it) is an ornamental knocker on the door of a cathedral. Long ago, if you touched the knocker, you were afforded the right of asylum inside. Think of a medieval Julian Assange. This ended about 400 years ago, so don’t try it the next time you are on the run from the police. Here’s the Sanctuary knocker on Durham Cathedral.
It’s much bigger than it looks here.
Harry Potter style cloisters
The city of Durham is dominated by its cathedral. It looms large over the whole peninsula.
Durham Cathedral looms large over the city.
I knew that the next target on the list would involve a trip inside this magnificent building. I made my way to the cloisters – stopping to take in the awe-inspiring interior – and got the shot I needed.
The Harry Potter style cloisters of Durham Cathedral.
My godmother hadn’t put ‘Harry Potter style’ cloisters on the list just because they look like they should be part of Hogwarts – she put it like that because they are part of Hogwarts. Durham Cathedral was used as a location for the first two films in the series – the Philosopher’s Stone and the Chamber of Secrets. The cloisters are where Ron’s spell backfired and he ended up coughing up slugs. Here is a page showing some of the scenes shot here.
Parts of Durham Cathedral are currently covered in scaffolding as it undergoes major repairs and development. They are calling the project Open Treasure and you can donate to help them maintain this amazing place.
A cathedral made of Lego
Reading the list with somewhat bleary eyes this morning, I did think ‘she wants me to make the cathedral out of Lego!?’. It seems an unlikely request, but you don’t know my godmother like I do. I then realised that there must be a Lego model of Durham Cathedral. After taking a photo of the cloisters, I headed for the gift shop and found what I was looking for.
That’s a lot of Lego.
The ‘182,000’ on the roof of this impressive Lego creation refers to the fact that there are now more than 182,000 pieces of Lego used in the model. And it’s not even finished. People can buy a brick and add it to the model personally.
A poem on a stone bridge with the cathedral in the background
Having left the cathedral, I went in search of this rather specific target. I had heard vaguely before about a bridge in Durham inscribed with a poem, but I had no idea where it was. It turns out it is on the secluded Prebends Bridge. It’s more than 340 years old and features the words of Sir Walter Scott from Harold the Dauntless.
I was pretty pleased to get the money shot of the cathedral in the background too.
A piece of rubbish in an inappropriate place
I thought this one would be easy. Durham is so historic that pretty much any rubbish lying around would be inappropriate. However, it seems the people here know that and so I discovered that Durham is one of the most litter-free places I have ever been to. I was scouring the flowerbeds close to the cathedral for just one crisp packet. I was desperate enough at one point to consider putting a piece of rubbish on the toilet seat in the flat and claiming that as target complete. Eventually, I settled on this:
I get a pass for this one, don’t I?
That’s rubbish. Check. That’s in the front yard of the road leading to the World Heritage Site. That’s got to be inappropriate, right? I do wonder what the people who saw me take that photo must have thought of me.
A large map of the UK embedded in the pavement, made up of coloured stone in a geological manner
This was the most difficult one on the list to find. This is because it’s not in the city centre, but outside the University of Durham’s Bill Bryson Library.
Like Ronseal, it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Once you get the idea of what it is and what it represents it’s pretty cool I think.
Tracy Franklin’s studio
‘Who the hell is Tracy Franklin?’ I hear you ask. Good question. I hadn’t got a clue either. Tracy Franklin is an embroiderer, and her studio is here in a back street.
Tracy Franklin’s studio.
I would tell you more about Tracy Franklin and her embroidery, but as embroidery is one of the most boring things in the world, I won’t.
A nice pile of washing up on the draining board
Now this was a very sneaky way for my godmother to get the washing up done in her flat. Being the excellent guest that I am, I did this before heading out this morning. Here’s the proof.
How clean is your house?
Last but not least…
A cup of coffee in your hand
After traipsing around Durham for more than three hours, I was quite happy to complete the challenge with this one. Sat back in the flat, this cup of coffee was very welcome on a chilly October day.
Raising a mug to my successful completion of the challenge.
With that, my photo treasure hunt was finished. It was a lot of fun actually, a great way to explore somewhere you’re not familiar with. I recommend this game the next time you go on holiday.
Thanks for reading, and rest assured normal service will be resumed shortly.
LEE PAYNE 