IT ended on the lowest of lows - the Republic of Ireland’s James McClean driving home sumptuously to condemn Wales to World Cup qualifying failure.

But anyone who experienced the hair standing up on the back of their neck as Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau rang out prior to kick-off at the Cardiff City Stadium last Monday evening will know that when it comes to international footballing passion in the UK, Wales is currently streets ahead of England.

So too, are Scotland and Northern Ireland, as the atmosphere at recent home qualifiers showed. Compare this trio of crowds with that at Wembley for the Slovenia tie.

True, England had already qualified for the finals in Russia. True, the proposed London Underground strike that night was called off only a couple of days earlier, with many fans having made alternative plans.

And true, Wembley is much bigger than Cardiff City Stadium, Hampden Park, or Windsor Park. It takes more filling, though a catchment area the size of Greater London mitigates against that excuse.

To see expanses of Wembley empty on such an occasion is a manifestation of an indifference at odds with the rest of the UK.

Perhaps there is a feeling among England fans that it matters not how the team qualifies, come tournament time it will be found wanting.

Fans and football pundits moaned in the early 2000s about how England’s ‘golden generation’ of footballers underperformed by merely reaching quarter finals. In view of more recent calamities, perhaps it overachieved.

Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland meanwhile, given their resources, have all overachieved this time around, even if that still meant they failed to qualify.

That is the reality, and is why the passion continues to burn bright. Long may it continue.