sport news England's Euro triumph must be used to give the women's game what it needs trends now

A lone voice of dulcet clarity was almost lost amid the tsunami of Euro-phoria which has swept England's triumphant Lionesses into the national consciousness.

Suddenly, late into the night at Wembley wonderland, a predecessor to these history-making champions spoke her undeniable truth about women's football.

Simplicity is the mother of perspective and here is this lady's dazzling insight: 'This should not be about comparisons between women's and men's football. They are different games. What we must do now is make the most of all that is best in our game.'

No mere male could have put it better but had one of us tried then no doubt he would have been dragged to the gallows of woke.

But here, in little more than a flicker across our television screens, all the manic hyperbole was cut through by 'a legend of women's football who helped pave the way to tonight's European glory.'

That was how she was introduced on air. I think it was Kelly Smith, the great goal-scorer, but I cannot be certain because I switched to that channel a split-second after her name was announced. 

And to my shame, like millions of ignorant males, I cannot instantly recognise even the best of these particularly fine women.

What I do know for certain is that in one brief moment this prescient female spoke more sense than all those delirious ranters about equality, parity, superiority even and the wildly imagined world-changing empowerment of a football match.

Sunday night at the home of football was a marvellous occasion. A victory for English women, children and, yes, men to relish and celebrate with gusto. 

Not least because it was achieved through the tension of extra time – and before dreaded penalties – against our deadly old rivals Germany.

The Queen was moved to describe these valiant girls as 'an example and inspiration to women.' In this epoch of superficial values and – literally – naked exposure of themselves by celebrities and impressionable girls, Her Majesty could not be more correct.

But do we really believe that this happy band of sisters have just transformed for the better the society in which we live? 

Not when such a revision was beyond the influence of two lady Prime Ministers and is likely to remain so if Liz Truss becomes the third. Margaret Thatcher was oft-described as having bigger cajones than any macho politician but that was not how she perceived herself.

As a shopkeeper's daughter Maggie was more concerned about creating an England fit for working people to live in than with trampling down the male of the species.

So it should be with our darlings of the moment. Just as location, location, location is the mantra of real estate, so legacy, legacy, legacy was the clarion call sounding loud and clear on Saturday night.