AT 3-1 John Motson ventured to suggest that people back home might be starting to get excited. At 5-1 he said: "This is developing into one of the most memorable England displays of recent years."

Presumably, as they didn't score again it didn't quite reach the heights of recent efforts such as the 1-0 home defeat by Germany last October, which prompted Kevin Keegan's resignation.

The 11-month transformation from no-hopers into Svengland, World Cup contenders, is astonishing. The players actually deserved to stay at Slaley Hall, as opposed to Mrs Brown's B & B in Benwell, which their form under Keegan warranted.

It struck me as the most exciting football I'd seen since Newcastle beat Man United 5-1 under Keegan's management. And thereby hangs a warning because even that wonderful win was not the harbinger of great things to come.

Those occasions when everything clicks are all too rare. They tend to prompt what has become one of the biggest cliches in sport - "there is no room for complacency" - and the performance against Albania proved the point.

It is never a good thing for any team for the captain to be head and shoulders above the rest, as David Beckham was at St James's, and questions resurfaced about certain players.

Barry Davies's commentary was far preferable to Motson's, especially his observation: "This is the area famous for the Blaydon Races, but Heskey isn't even at the races."

Nor was McManaman, while the grossly over-paid Sol Campbell barely left the stalls.

But whatever Motson might think Saturday had to be the greatest day for the England team since 1966.

Perhaps the Germans did defend like Pity Me Reserves, but we are entitled to go into raptures, even if spending £1.5m on replica kits in the next three days was going a bit over the top.

What delighted me was that the slow, methodical stuff which gave Germany the edge in the first ten minutes was blitzed by the adventurous approach of England's young guns.

And how refreshing to see Michael Owen, so hungry for goals, ride a tackle just inside the box when the vast majority would have flung themselves to earth and writhed in fake agony.

Played like this, football could put a smile on everyone's face. It was full of youthful zest, with the team boasting an average age of 23 if David Seaman was taken out of the calculation.

Like Alec Stewart, Seaman is still there because there's no-one better and he brought off crucial saves in both matches. He could have a long stay in the team because after this all the kids will want to be Michael Owen.

THERE'S just no keeping these Germans down. No sooner are they humiliated at football than one of their number breaks the record for the number of Grand Prix wins.

It could have happened to a nicer chap than Michael Schumacher, of course, although he might have mellowed a bit since shunting into David Coulthard at the same Belgian track three years ago and blowing a gasket with him afterwards.

I don't believe that Schumacher is worthy of twice as many Grand Prix wins as some of the great names from the past like Fangio and Jim Clark. But the advances which have given him a superior machine have also given him a much better chance of staying alive.

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is no stranger to chaos, but it was spared another tragedy when Luciano Burti was pulled out of his crumpled Prost virtually unscathed after his 165 mph crash. Ten years ago he would have been dead.

SAM Torrance was always going to face a difficult choice with his three wild cards for the Ryder Cup. But why he has gone for Jesper Parnevik rather than Jose Maria Olazabal is beyond me.

Parnevik is a laid-back Swede with the talent to regularly breeze into contention in major championships. But, unlike Olly, he has yet to prove he has the bottle to win one.

There is now so much hype surrounding the Ryder Cup that ability to scrap it out in a highly-charged situation is essential.

Olazabal thrives in such an atmosphere and it was not his fault that his excellent Ryder Cup record was spoilt two years ago when Justin Leonard started holing putts from everywhere.

It was one of those which prompted the green invasion which so upset Olly. He deserved a crack at revenge.

RUGBY Union's Premiership now has two well-supported teams east of the Pennines.

As they await an inquiry into their impressive expansion plans, Newcastle had a record 7,500 shoe-horned into Kingston Park for the victory over Leicester, while Leeds Tykes' Premiership debut attracted 5,180 whereas fewer than 1,000 had previously been the norm.

Published: 07/09/2001