Even when we score 12

..penalties we can’t win.

You’d think an England side that actually managed to score a dozen penalties in a shoot out would manage to come away with a place in the next round.

But no this was a semi-final in major championships in the summer so the opposition, the Dutch in this case, scored one more and progressed to the final the game finishing 1-1 after extra time.

Also it’s an all too familiar story of an England team in a tournament, get a lead and be unable to hang onto it, happened earlier in the group stage against Italy they did buck the trend in that heated game against Serbia but it really is something they need to sort out at every level cause they were so close this time.

They certainly did well to hold out in extra-time being down to pretty much nine men for most of the 30 minutes and take it to penalties. But with Stuart Pearce standing there you just knew even after scoring pen after pen and the Dutch matching the misses it wasn’t going to go be his night.

But Pearce has shown that practising taking penalties can’t hurt in this situation.

The thing is what would have happened if they had gone through, Noble, Reo-Coker and Milner were all yellow carded last night meaning a suspension for the final along with Huddlestone’s two match ban from his sending off against Serbia, possibly Onuoha and Taylor not being fit for Saturday added to the squad being one light from the beginning with scummy Bentley’s pull out.

Personally think with Serbia winning the other semi England should have just refused to play the final. Take the moral high ground and not put their players in the position to have put up with the crap from the Serb players and fans. Do their best to embarrass UEFA in the process.