So England lost. Germany won quite rightly as they were easily the better side, both technically and mentally. The lampard shot was clearly a goal and maybe, along with the Tevez goal later that evening, this will mean technology gets used in footie games and about time too.

But I don't hate the England team. I don't hate them or their manager or their fans. I hate the hooligan element of their fans but I hate the hooligan element of any fanbase. No my emnity is reserved purely for the media who once again assumed, due to England winning the World Cup ONCE, that they have some divine right to assume they will again simply because they qualified for the tournament. Is this the fault of the team? No, this is purely the media's doing.

I've seen members of my famiy be quite specific talking about "English scum". it's one thing to love your team, similarly to perhaps be playfully disdainful of rivals but hate? Its too much and is frankly why I'll never be a true footie fan. I love my team, but not to the point of hating another team, thats too far. I don't get it and moreover, I don't want to get it.

By all means hate violence, cruelty and abuse and those who would use them. Hate poverty and disease and those who cause them. Hate man's inhumanity to man. Hate those who claim to preach love whilst in reality they are preaching hate, intolerance and segregation and calling it an act of love. Hate the public's fascination with the vapid, the talentless, the brainless and the attention-greedy and show disdain for those who seem to see fame, and it's acquisition by any means necessary, as the goal rather than a side effect of having talent and becoming successful for that talent. And show disdain and derision for those who, either in small ways or large, abuse or misuse your trust. All these manifestations of hate and scorn I fully understand.

But hating a football team, or any sports team, simply because they are not your particular team? No, that I neither get, understand, nor wish to emulate. I am a fan of Manchester United and as a fan I want to see them do well. But do I hate their rivals like Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and the rest? No, of course not. My loving one team does not mean by contrast I have to hate others. The two are not linked nor should they be and those who cannot separate those two principles, I don't know whether to hold them in contempt or pity them.

Of course, England are centuries old rivals to us Scots. Of course we enjoy the moments when we see our rivals beaten by our team. But should that rivalry become a poison in our soul that causes us to refer to the England team as "scum" and actually support the opposition? Clearly not. I support Scotland, and as such did not support England but I wasn't supporting the opposition either. i watched the game as a true neutral, willing neither side to win or lose but merely enjoying a game.

The media need to calm down. Already the first cries of "Capello out" and "we need an English manager" (forgetting their last English manager, Steve McLaren, was woeful in the job) have been sounded. I don't know what went wrong in the England camp that caused them to perform so dismally but they need to sort it. But the media need to get their commentary into perspective and be less full-on when it comes to talking up England. Yes, of the home nations England are the best team right now no question (and I accept that part of the Scottish bitterness may well be fuelled by jealousy) but they are not world beaters yet every World Cup and European Cham,pionship out come the pundits convinced that England are world beaters simply because once, many decades ago, they won the World Cup. 1966 was a lifetime ago, folks, and it needs to be forgotten and the new teams judged on their own merits, not on the presumptive past glories of others.