There was a startling lack of creativity and if Van Gaal had listened closely he would have made out the mocking chants from the away end, as the visiting fans embarked on the repertoire of songs that formed the soundtrack to David Moyes’s time in the job.

You call me mother, and I remember my mother again, somewhere in greater Boston, dying. I remember we named you Joyce so we could call you Joy.

They have fallen short on so many occasions that an England team who rises to the occasion are worthy of the highest praise.

In the last week of Goa, in mid-March, there occurred an example of God's great providence: a large schooner from Dunkirk in France ran aground on one of the Hálsasker skerries off the coast of the eastern part of Suðursveit.