What do you do when you're on a Russian street at 1am after a World Cup football match with a pile of TV equipment, no taxis anywhere and basic language skills?

If you're in Volgograd, the answer comes to you, literally.

A driver pulls over and, using perfect English, offers to run all three of us to our hotel.

When we get there he point blank refuses to accept a single rouble from us and cheerily waves goodbye.

The welcome in this proud old city - formerly Stalingrad - has been nothing short of phenomenal.


So many people have asked to practise their English, gone out of their way to help us and made visiting fans from all nations incredibly welcome.

Image: Harry Kane scored twice to give England three points in their World Cup opener

It's such a shame that there were only 2,500 England fans here to witness that last-gasp 2-1 win against Tunisia.

They were outnumbered and outsung by the Tunisians, all day and all night, but the three points belong to the Three Lions.

:: Harry Kane scores late winner to give England 2-1 victory over Tunisia in World Cup opener

I remember meeting one of the Arsenal team that famously won at Anfield in 1989 to win the league title.

He told me that if every Arsenal fan who has told him they were there that night had actually been there, the stadium would have been filled five times over.

Kane scores late winner to give England 2-1 victory

Last night could well turn out to be that night for England. The players have now flown back to their Repino base, north of St Petersburg.

England have made friends and won admirers here, on and off the pitch. This Russian World Cup is still in its early stages, but it's turning out to be very, very different to what some had expected.

Next up it's Panama in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday. The bar has been set quite high.