England Supporters Club

I’m used to blowing my own trumpet but not when it comes to predictions – I think we’ll get a result against Uruguay, but I thought we’d beat Italy 4-0! You’ve got to be optimistic as an England fan, sometimes it’s blind optimism but if you do what we do you have to believe. I’ve been following England with the band for 18 years now and it has always been the same. Roy Hodgson...

In the build-up to the World Cup a Uruguayan company launched an imaginative advertising campaign. Draped in a sky blue sheet, the colour of Uruguay’s shorts, the ghost of 1950 wandered around Rio frightening the locals – no one ever here needs reminding that the last time the World Cup was held in Brazil, Uruguay walked off with the trophy. So there was an element of Brazilian joy at Uruguay’s humiliating...

Before every tournament most people are guilty of thinking a bit higher of England than they probably should - me included, I thought we would beat Italy 2-0! But despite the result I think we must take lots of positives from the performance. It was great to see the players actually go for it in the match and I thought we were quite entertaining. Raheem Sterling was great - every time he got the ball he looked dangerous...

How do you stop Luis Suarez? The key for England will be communication and getting tighter defensively than they did against Italy. There was an uncertainty and a vulnerability to England's defence, particularly down the left, on Saturday night...