THERE'S an English national football team that deserves our polite appreciation - only it's not the men's team.

While England's men's team flatter to deceive, the women's side have impressively progressed to the semi-finals of the European Championships.

After beating Finland 3-2 in the last eight, they now meet either France or Holland in the semi-finals.

Whatever happens, this team deserves credit but so far their achievments this summer has largely gone under the radar.

Contrast this to 2005's European Championships in England, where the national side were hyped up and did not live up to expectations.

To be fair the women's team had came a long way, they simply could not live up to the nation's typically unrealistic expectations.

It was assumed (by the public) after that they would just just fade away.

It's a pattern of disappointment taught to us by the men's team, where brief moments of glory have lit up an otherwise average history.

But without the glare of the national media, manager Hope Powell has continued to develop her side and they have done enough to earn our respect and a lot of credit.

It goes to show what our sporting organisations can do when they don't have tons of hype (often generated by themselves) and over the top expectations to compete with.

At the start of this piece I said polite appreciation, I don't mean to deride the women's success, I just mean that levels of success needs a measured amount of praise.

For example, semi-finals equals - 'well done, it's something to build on'.

Losing the finals - 'we were close but I can take some pride from being second best'.

Winning the final - 'hooray! we're the best, I can now have big smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart at our success, until the next competition'.

By the way it should never, ever, ever, ever be - 'we're the best team in the world, now we will dominate for ever!'