The tears and emotion flowed even from strong men such as John Terry.

But the brutal truth about England's World Cup failure after another epic tournament exit came from Gary Neville.

He said: "I wouldn't want to use anything as an excuse. There are make-or-break moments in tournaments and we haven't done enough again. We haven't got through and if you haven't got through you haven't done enough."

No attempt to hide behind Wayne Rooney's sending-off. No attempt to justify England's appalling record when it comes to technique and nerve in taking penalties.

No attempt to blame bad luck, missed chances or the unfortunate injury to Michael Owen.

And at last an England player had engaged stone-cold reality at a tournament during which a team who had deluded themselves that they should be kings went out to the first decent team they met.

Actually that is doing a good deal less than "enough."

The truth is that for so much of World Cup 2006 England were totally out of kilter with the mood of the tournament.

Where others such as Argentina and Ghana and Mexico and Spain came to express themselves, playing with freedom, beguiling billions of television viewers with their skills, even if Argentina spoiled it all with their shameful exit, England seemed to have come to grind their way to victory.

It was one route, no doubt about that, but it was not one to win respect, nor admiration, nor the ultimate prize.

The talk the length and breadth of Germany these past three weeks was not of a side on the cusp of glory.

It was of a side who if they had been playing in the back garden, most people would have drawn the curtains.

"Negative football," was how FIFA president Sepp Blatter put it and for once the old FIFA fox was not talking nonsense.

They were diffident and sterile in their opening match against Paraguay when they required an own goal for victory.

At times they were embarrassing against Trinidad and Tobago, the smallest nation to compete at the World Cup but who took them to within six minutes of a draw before Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard struck.

Against Sweden they required the help of the woodwork to save them as they did against Ecuador although it should be said that David Beckham scored one of the tournament's great free-kicks.

The sad thing was that England's inability to play with authority or freedom flew in the face of all that had been said about the so-called golden generation of English footballers.

Much of it by the players themselves.

Back in the bowels of the Escopa stadium in Shizuoka, Japan, four years ago David Beckham had predicted the same players would turn up in Germany and shake the world.

The blend of youth and experience would be right. They would have learned how to wear their tournament hat. The 40-year wait would be over.

Talk is one thing, delivery quite another.

For all that the weight of criticism falls heaviest on Eriksson, as it always does on the manager in football's toughest job, it is only right the players take their responsibility.

And the truth is that the image and reputation of England's players far outweighs what they have produced here in Germany.

So let's name the guilty men.

Frank Lampard. A shadow of the player who struts his stuff and scores his goals week in and week out for Chelsea. Little imagination and desperate shooting.

Steven Gerrard. Strove with huge industry as always but his inability to work in tandem with Lampard and recreate the all-embracing influence he displays for Liverpool was at the heart of England's lack of creativity.

Joe Cole. Started the tournament well enough but when England needed his trickery and invention most he went missing.

David Beckham. The statistics will prove he was England's most lethal weapon, being responsible for 50% of England's goals in Germany, but apart from set-pieces the captain has become a peripheral figure at this level.

Senior men. Not so senior service. There was no doubt England were difficult to beat. After all, they go home not having lost other than in the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.

But neither were they the galacticos of their own fevered imagination.

Instead they proved to be solid and powerful. Men of determination and huge spirit, who would spill every last drop of sweat and blood in their team's cause. Players who justifiably grace the top sides in world football.

But the 1970 Brazilians were a golden generation. So were the 1974 Dutchmen and the Frenchmen of 1998.

By contrast England flattered to deceive. Fool's gold. Harsh perhaps, but at the pinnacle of world football the hallmark of greatness is not bestowed lightly.

England 2006 never came remotely close to that.