Certainly there was suffering at Anfield, as Sven Goran Eriksson said readily enough, but it was a different kind of pain to the one with which we had become so familiar. It was more, if one can guess, the kind that comes with birth rather than a decaying tooth. And when the labour was done Eriksson had deliverance – not an excuse for a ticker-tape parade. Certainly there was suffering at Anfield, as Sven Goran Eriksson said readily enough, but it was a different kind of pain to the one with which we had become so familiar.

It was more, if one can guess, the kind that comes with birth rather than a decaying tooth. And when the labour was done Eriksson had deliverance – not an excuse for a ticker-tape parade.
England might still not be quite ready to bite into the front rank of international football, but unquestionably something hopeful stirred as the tribal hatreds of Manchester United and Liverpool yielded to the national uplift which came with the decisive strikes of David Beckham and Michael Owen which beat a tough and impressively organised Finland.What it was, at least partly, you have to suspect, was the effect of intelligent leadership. Eriksson’s England in many ways started no more convincingly than those of Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan, but there was a vital difference not wholly obscured by the need of veteran David Seaman to perform spectacular resistance in the last few minutes. England generally got better rather than worse.The unravelling threatened by the goal which came from the unchallenged header of Aki Riihilahti after 27 minutes did not happen.

The implosions which in the last nine months brought wretched defeats against Portugal, Romania and Germany did not happen. Excellent performances came from Seaman, Gary Neville and Sol Campbell in defence, Steven Gerrard gave some compelling reasons why he is receiving more protection than a threatened, but exquisite tropical plant, Beckham produced a performance which explained at least to some extent what all the fuss is about, and Owen reminded us all over again that no one is more likely to score when the pressure is at its highest.On the balance of chances, England might have won 4-1 despite worrying bouts of incoherence in the first half So there was a pattern of progress under fire. Steve McManaman, a vital element in the winning goal after looking as confused as anyone in the first half, emerged as a figure of potentially biting relevance.These are the pluses that Eriksson takes to Albania today along with the latest, sad evidence that Gerrard will for some time clearly be an asset as fragile as it is potentially brilliant. The need to exclude him, for fitness reasons, from Wednesday’s game is confirmation that he is a promise without guarantee, which, as it happens, is pretty much the status of Eriksson’s revolution. In both cases, however, there are reasons for high hopes.At half-time the new manager hammered at one priority. England had to quicken their tempo, they had to get people behind the big, resolute defenders marshalled by Sami Hyypia, but they must not lose their shape or their heads. It was an early, collective visit to the heat of a volatile kitchen but the burn victims were blessedly few.