I'm no pessimist. Me and my mate at work were telling everyone who would listen that we were gonna win the ashes for about a year before we did. We were also telling everyone we were gonna win the world cup lol that one didn't go so well. It's just that this time everything was going wrong. Absolutley everything. You can put a brave face on things and talk about the spirit of this team or you could be realistic and say that to beat the Aussies you need a certain slice of luck and for things to go your way (ie not lose half your team through injury and have your best bowler suffering from his usual home sickness/panic attack/lack of confidence/being a useless knakcer). This didn't happen and I thought it was pretty obvious we had no chance. Our bowling attack looked far too weak to take 20 Aussie wickets in a test match as it proved. The batting lineup was inexperienced and also weak in comparison to the Aussies.

But who knows. If Monty Panesar had started in the first test and put it up em right away would things have been different? Maybe. Will we put up a better fight in 2009? Maybe. Will we win the world cup? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL NO.