IT seemed like a good idea at the time, until goalkeeper Rob Green dropped the mother of all clangers and made us all very depressed on Saturday night.

I asked work experience girl Summer Coles to stomp the streets of High Wycombe last Thursday and take as many photographs as possible of England flags.

I obviously did it to be patriotic and support our boys (especially the five Spurs ones) in the World Cup. But my real motivation was to get her to fill this space, thereby avoiding the need for me to have to write a column – which meant I could get home early and watch the football.

Young Summer did a fine job and captured several images, including the one on the top right on the London Road, High Wycombe.

But I almost wish we hadn’t bothered after seeing how rubbish we were on Saturday against the USA, a country that thinks football is a sport you play with helmets and shoulder pads. Forget the excuses, we were as feeble and faint-hearted as I had feared we would be, and all the optimism has sapped out of me.

Never mind, there’s still two more matches at least for us to recover and I will be rooting for us from behind the sofa. Yes, I am sure we will win the World Cup despite us not having a decent goalie, a fit top-class centre half and a centre forward (Heskey) who can actually score.

We are still the greatest nation in the land for supporting our team, as these photos show, so email more of them to cheer me up at scohen@london.newsquest.co.uk I’ll give a prize for the best picture of an England-supporting property.