It's a Shangri-La moment for our leaders of the pack

GARETH SOUTHGATE and England love a leadership group but for more than an hour and a half of an utterly dreadful performance it went missing.

- Andy Dunn

Three prominent members Harry Kane, Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham were as good as nowhere to be seen.

If you did catch a glimpse of them against Slovakia, they looked ponderous, nervous and clueless.

But even in the most dire of sporting situations, leaders have deep wells of resolve, deep wells of defiance, deep wells of determination.

More importantly, they have a muscle memory that lifts them above the average run-of-the-mill player.

How else can you explain Bellingham's extraordinary leveller deep into stoppage time? How else can you explain Kane's predatory finish that made it 2-1 early in extra-time? Kane had been terrible in the regulation 90 minutes.

If, as the Bayern Munich star claims, he really is fully fit and his back is not giving him any grief, it is hard to explain why he has developed the turning circle of an oil tanker.

For large parts of England's Euro 2024 campaign, Kane's movement has been laboured to say the least.