LIKE England's fans back home, no doubt, I am still coming to terms with Sunday night's injury-time defeat against France, having watched the drama unfold at the fantastic Stadium of Light.

I've never experienced anything like that as a player, leading 1-0 in injury-time only to lose 2-1, and I'm sure only the Manchester United boys could relate to it after their Champions League final win over Bayern Munich.

It was a bitterly disappointing end to a previously very enjoyable day. I travelled to the game on a coach for a three-and-a-half hour journey to Lisbon with about 100 other fans, including Carlton Palmer, who is staying at our complex.

Everybody was in great spirits and, whereas before the Championships started, people thought we would be lucky to get anything out of France, by the time we were on the coach, as per normal with England fans, everybody was expecting us to win.

When we got to the new Stadium of Light stadium it hits you how fantastic it is. It seemed really quiet at first but when we were about 100 yards away from the ground the atmosphere was great - hairs standing up on the back of your neck stuff.

There was certainly no trouble around the ground and the England fans were mingling with the French. I did not feel intimidated and that was a concern before I went because you don't want to get caught up in any trouble.

I also only saw a couple of touts. They were both French and the tickets were going for £200 - three times their face value.

When we got in people were saying that the crowd was three-quarters English but, from where I was, it looked more like seven-eighths and they created an electric atmosphere.

I thought we held our own in the match and did well although we probably sat back a bit too much which was possibly our downfall. We invited pressure but, at half-time, I remember thinking if we come through the next ten minutes we would be fine and it looked that way.

I also remember pinching myself at about 88 minutes and turning to my brother-in-law to say how great it was to be witnessing such an excellent result. However, no sooner had I spoken than Zidane hit that fantastic free-kick.

There was disappointment but everybody around us was saying a draw's not too bad and then we got sucker-punched. But England have to look at the positives now - we held our own against the possible champions-elect.

Portugal, meanwhile, had few to take from their opening defeat against Greece. The mood after that match over here was one of disappointment, even more than ours, I think, because they did not perform. At least, we gave a good display.

Aside from that, the atmosphere here is still fantastic. When I left England everybody was flying flags from their cars and it's the same with the Portuguese although a few ex-pats are making sure the St George Cross is still waving from a few windows.

Everybody here is as football mad as we are in England. As soon as the first game comes on the beaches empty and, at night, there's big screens to watch the second game while you eat at restaurants.

I'm now looking forward to watching England's remaining group matches with Switzerland tonight and Croatia on Monday and am waiting to see if I can get tickets for the games in Faro.

Updated: 10:41 Thursday, June 17, 2004