Trojans when they win, that is. So what does it say about the national character when they lose? Is there some cancerous part of the English psyche which produces serial chokers? Someone, somewhere must be writing a thesis on it: the role of the English character in the muffed penalty shoot-out.

"The national character definitely came out in that game," says Professor Cary Cooper, a psychologist at Manchester University's Institute of Science and Technology. We bottled it, right? "No I mean it came out in the way we showed so much courage. It was really about bulldog England. When (David) Beckham was sent off and we were one man down that is when the national character came out."

So where was bulldog England whenDavid Batty's saved penalty shot us out of the World Cup? Tony Gleadell is a leading consultant in sports psychology who has worked with the national golf team and specialises in the `closed skills' of the penalty shoot-out: "It is not necessarily a cultural problem," he says. "Certain sportspersons are not good at closed skills and if you pick the wrong guy you are in trouble. I don't think Batty is particularly gifted at them."

"When you get to the penalty shoot-out it is all about individuals being able to cope with the pressure," says Professor Cooper. "You may as well roll a dice."

Not exactly, says Dr Richard Cox, a lecturer in sports psychology at Herriott Watt University. Not only can individual nerves be short circuited with practice but the level of those nerves might be informed by certain cultural idiosyncrasies: "It is dangerous to start dwelling on the importance of how many people are watching you. You've got to put intellectual blinkers on and the most important thing is to fix on whereyou want to put the ball. Alan Shearer is the best example of someone who is totally self assured in terms of what he is going to do with the ball."

Indecision in the face of a penalty shoot-out is fatal. Might not Tuesday night's performance be seen as a classic example of a nation on the dither? Gleadell thinks so. "Under pressure the old worry sets in and a footballer has conflicting images of where to put the ball. Should it go left or right? Indecision like this creates the likelihood of a miss or save."

So what would sports psychologists suggest to scotch such indecision? Dr Cox has a DIY (Do It Yourself) plan: "I'm all for encasing the whole goal mouth in a wooden shield, with one metre-boards which could be moved to reveal a hole that would concentrate the player's shot. If he's been practising like that, when it comes to a penalty shoot-out, nerves and national characteristics just won't come into it."

But Professor Cooper insists that the national character did Batty and team proud. "When youlose with that kind of style and class, when the players hug and support each other and don't leave the pitch with their heads hanging -- that's what tells you about the national character. That was not a loss, it was a victory."