Whisper it, but England have nothing to fear at this World Cup..apart from VAR

England at the World Cup finals remains one for the true dreamers in life. Reality can wait.

Around 23 minutes in, and the fearsome former Arsenal stopper-turned-pundit Martin Keown blurts out what millions of frazzled fans up and down England’s green and pleasant lands are thinking, but are probably too scared to tell themselves amid this quadrennial outpouring of manic national pride.

England have erected a 1-0 lead courtesy of their glorious Tottenham striker Harry Kane converting from close range on 11 minutes to cap a magical start to these finals.

Gareth Southgate's dashing team, the youngest and perhaps brightest to represent the country at a World Cup since 1958, are ravaging a tortured Tunisia.

As stylish as Nobby dancing, they are feverishly reviving images of 1966 with a rash of red shirts swarming all over their bamboozled Group G opponents with more menace than the insects at the Volgograd Arena. At least the midges aren't Scottish otherwise grown men would have perished out there.

“Dare I say it, England are playing some of the best football we’ve seen in the tournament so far,” gushes Keown from the furnace of the commentary gantry.

Talk about counting your Three Lions before they’ve hatched. Only 10 minutes later, and England come crashing back to earth like Gareth at Euro '96.

When you have a right wing-back operating as a makeshift centre-half it is probably best not to get too carried away.

After all, this is England, a country who have unearthed magnificently weird and wonderful ways to discover hardship at these international soirees since Jules Rimet was gleaming at the old Wembley Stadium 52 years ago.

One minute they are going to win this damned thing, the next they are looking for scapegoats. Like Kane delivers goals, he is up to 15 in 25 appearances for England, it has always been thus in the land that invented the world game.

And so it came to pass in the 35th minute. A cross ball going nowhere was somehow given fresh meaning by the Manchester City full-back Kyle Walker, who caught Fakhreddine Ben Youssef with a Tyson Fury-esque swinging arm apparently unaware that the Tunisia number eight was behind him.

Ben Youssef goes to ground like Audley Harrison with Walker staring longingly into his own goal, and within minutes Tunisia are level as Ferjani Sassi tucks the penalty to the right of the despairing dive of Jordan Pickford.

How England managed to get sucked into this situation was as maddening as Walker’s lack of awareness in his own penalty area.

Like Keown, it was easy to romanticise over England’s play in their fluid 3-5-2 formation because so much of it was so enthralling. If they had been three goals ahead by the time Tunisia had earned a dodgy penalty, it would not been harsh on the winded North African lot, a country that one should not forget lie a respectable 21st in the FIFA rankings.

But England's only problem was their profligacy with Jesse Lingard seeing a shot brilliantly halted by Mouez Hassen when he should have scored while Raheem Sterling scuffed an effort wide in a breathless opening to the night.

Lingard was also too honest. When Farouk Ben Mustapha, an early replacement for the injured Hassen, cleared him out seconds before half-time with the score at 1-1 he should have gone to ground rather than stay on his feet with the ball trickling against the side of a post and wide.

He would have earned a penalty, but England should have had a few more of those on the night to settle this match more emphatically.

In truth, England were desperately unlucky to encounter a dramatically poor referee in Colombian Wilmar Roldan, who did them no favours on the night by deciding to ignore the much trumpeted VAR. Who needs video replays when you can just go on your gut instinct was Roldan’s theory. Surely a worrying state of affairs on the game's grandest stage.

It was poetic justice when Kane appeared unmarked deep into injury time to nod England’s winner into the net via a Harry Maguire header after being denied (at least) two obvious penalties. It also spared football’s morale bastion in FIFA some serious heat.

Kane was dragged to the ground in either half by an opposition who feared him enough to risk being penalised. How Tunisia avoided a penalty on both occasions is mystifying in the extreme.

If VAR is supposed to right the wrongs of decisions the referee misses, it went AWOL here. No Vardy for England on the night, and no VAR either.

Sassi and Yassine Meriah wrestled Kane to the deck with moves more suited to Big Daddy. It was a disgrace neither foul prompted a television replay, then a booking, then a penalty and then more Kane goals.

FIFA should be launching a private inquest into why this all went so badly wrong. We got the right outcome on the night due to captain Harry in spite of VAR rather than because of it.

In the end, no matter. England are off and running at this World Cup in a stylish, serene and pragmatic manner. The portents are positive because England will go to town on Panama in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday if they replicate their first-half force and second-half character. They have goodwill, good play and momentum roaring behind them.

Only four teams have still to play their first match at these finals, but England have looked sharper than Germany, Argentina, France and Brazil. And no worse than Spain, Portugal or Group G favourites Belgium.

England winning the World Cup remains fanciful yet is surely not such a ridiculous notion as it was last Thursday.

Even if they almost became the first team to be the major loser from VAR, England are suddenly a clear and present danger at this tournament. These are days for the true dreamers. Reality can wait.