Hallelujah...

Playlist

Middle of the week...

Up early and breakfasting...

At 9, over to Balerno to pick up Malcolm...

...plus his late dad's accordion and some Lego to transport over to his son Ruari, currently staying with his maternal grandparents...

A couple of hours all told and good chat with the Malc-meister, including pushing Crazy Wisdom forward again...

Very hot today...

In the afternoon, recording and uploading this week's podcast, a couple of days late...

Chicken and peas for tea...

Later, England V Argentina - we watched the first half with one eye, including doing the dishes - but I couldn't take it so, for the second half we watched "Bones" without monitoring the football...

Unbeknown to me Anne was checking the score on her phone and knew England went 1-0 up in 55...

Then, that Argentine equalised with 5 minutes to go - at which point, she made me aware...

Glory be - a potential winner in 92 but 10 minutes still to play...

But, yes indeed, Argentina triumphed and, at last, I could enjoy the World Cup, as England were out...

We switched to iPlayer and watched the whole of the second half via the Completion Backward Principle - whereby you already know the outcome...

So enjoyable..

Any team that scores in 55 and parks the bus from 60 does not deserve to be in the final...

They really are the luckiest team imaginable...

Here are all England's competitive fixtures re this World Cup competition:

Albania (x2), Latvia (x2), Andorra (x2), Serbia (x2), Croatia, Ghana, Panama, DR Congo, Mexico, Norway, Argentina...

Meanwhile, Scotland played Denmark (x2), Belarus (x2), Greece (x2), Haiti, Morocco and Brazil before exiting...

On the face of it, England' international record is good - a quarter, 2 semis and 2 finals in the last 5 tournaments...

But, delve deeper and you can see that they have seldom beaten a “peer” nation to get to those levels - they do seem to end up playing the comparative equivalent of pub teams and then going out as soon as they face a team they are supposedly as good as...

Coca Cola Rankings at January 2026 on draw of World Cup Finals Groups

England 4

v

Qualifiers

Albania 63

Latvia 139

Andorra 172

Serbia 39

Rank 4 versus Ave Rank 103.25

Finals Group

Croatia 11

Ghana 72

Panama 33

Rank 4 versus Ave Rank 38.67

Finals Knock Out

DR Congo 48

Mexico 16

Norway 32

Argentina 2

Rank 4 versus Ave Rank 24.5

Overall

Rank 4 versus Ave Rank 57

Scotland 38

v

Qualifiers

Denmark 21

Belarus 98

Greece 46

Rank 38 versus Ave Rank 55

Finals

Haiti 83

Morocco 8

Brazil 5

Rank 38 versus Ave Rank 32

Overall

Rank 38 versus Ave Rank 43.5

Anyway...

Hallelujah!

Highlight of the Day: England out at last...

Today's New Music: