Letter: English soccer woes

Sir: Miles Kington in his article on Scottish football (5 September) speaks of 'Scottish cockiness', which 'as so often, dissolved into tears' and the 'breast-beating, and wailing, and agonising of the Scottish variety that always follows'. Since he mentions 'one of the classic Scottish gripes', I'll give him another two:

When are the English going to stop breast-beating, and wailing, and agonising about the 'hand of God' incident (England v Argentina, 1986) and the Ronald Koeman incidents (Netherlands v England, 1993), both of which almost certainly robbed England of another World Cup triumph?

Also, when are the English going to stop talking about the 1966 World Cup Final, which they won by virtue of a two-goal hat-

trick from Geoff Hurst?

Yours faithfully,

DOUGLAS GRIFFIN

Aberdeen

5 September

(Photograph omitted)