THE disappointment of the England fans after the defeat by Germany was palpable.

But at least I had a good result after the final whistle!

The one good thing to come out of the game was that we were able to sell our quarter-final tickets to some German fans outside the ground and made a decent profit.

We trooped away from the Free States Stadium in Bloemfontein with heavy hearts knowing that we had been well beaten by a very talented German  side.

I wasn't able to talk to too many of the other England supporters afterwards because many of them had long car journeys back to where they were staying but I can imagine the reaction of the papers back home.

They probably reflected our own disappointment with the campaign as far as England are concerned.

Everybody knows that a goal should have been awarded to Frank Lampard. How the officials managed to get that wrong was unbelievable.

Most people inside the ground were talking about it but nobody was under any illusions that it made a great deal of difference to the outcome.

There weren't many positives. Wayne Rooney looked out of sorts for the whole campaign – I don't know what's been wrong with him – but we have been under-performing as a team.

The Germans were just much quicker and highlighted our shortcomings.

On the other hand, the England supporters have been fantastic.

I have not seen one bad-tempered incident or any sign of trouble – even when some of the Germans were celebrating outside the ground on Sunday and making a few comments, the England supporters just accepted it and took it in good part.

We had outnumbered the German fans at least two to one and the backing given to the team has been not only very vocal but good humoured.

I think we had to be a bit philosophical after the first couple of performances and just go with the flow.

To be honest, we're all a bit tired of driving about now, so we're going to  chill out.

Our next game will be back in Johannesburg between Uruguay and Ghana and probably the following day another quarter-final, which I think is likely to be between Spain and Paraguay.

Oliver Dean is documenting his journey to the World Cup regularly in the DET and we thank him for allowing us to re-print his diary columns here on RamZone!.... Keep an eye out for his next diary entry soon!

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