Pulp the souvenir first editions! Re-cork the Prosecco. Reassume the sober Southgate-era frown. Welcome instead to the almost-dawning of the age of Gareth. On a mild, oddly boisterous night England and their temp-to-perm manager came close to pulling off a genuinely startling result at Wembley, leading Spain 2-0 before two late goals stilled the sense of a dawning coronation, with all the giddy uncertainties such a victory here might have brought.
This was still an encouraging match in many ways, if only for the simple pleasure of the occasion. With an hour gone, Mexican waves rolling around this great concrete spaceship, and Southgate’s new assertive England 2-0 up it was tempting to wonder what that unusual feeling was. A lightness. A sense of unencumbered mild positivity.
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