All we can do is kick and Hope
Apart from the fact that France were fitter, technically superior, should have won in normal time, should have won in extra time and deservedly won on penalties, England's women absolutely deserved the heroic, Lioness analogies that were thrown about following their exit in the World Cup quarter-final.
Pride - and no little irrationality - coming before a fall, the whole campaign was written up as a lesson for Fabio Capello and our under-achieving men, when the evidence suggests both teams have similar flaws.
'Take note, Fabio - England women reach World Cup quarter-finals,' read one headline after England had progressed from the group stage. Capello, of course, did not reach the last eight in 2010, removed by Germany in the second round. It never occurred to the newspaper that it would be pretty hard for England's women to get eliminated in their second round, as there wasn't one.
Instead, they were removed at the knock-out stage by the first good team they played, having been outclassed: which is pretty much the story of male tournament performances for 44 years, bar 1990 and 1996.
The most patronising aspect of women's football in England is that it seems to exist in the minds of most correspondents as little more than a means of having a pop at the men's team. No interview with a female footballer is complete without a wage check - Wayne Rooney earns more in a day than some of our players do in a year, yawn, yawn - or specious links between manager Hope Powell and Capello.
'They talk, but he hasn't offered her any advice, or vice versa,' as one writer observed. Watching Powell's exhortations to her players to hit it long or over the top, this is probably just as well.
It all led to a very over-played hand in Germany and, clearly, some of England's players found the scrutiny and expectation a burden during the World Cup.
Although growing fast, the women's game is still in comparative infancy and should be treated as such, allowed to develop its own rhythms and identity without constantly being required to prove some redundant point to the lads.
We are merely repeating past mistakes here, with similar results. This England campaign started slow, picked up towards the end of the group stage, and then ended in a plucky show amid a technical lesson, followed by penalty defeat. We have seen this film before, and just having an all-female cast does not make it any more palatable, or heroic.
