By Tom Fordyce BBC Sport Online

So, after one brief day of optimism, it's back to the same old same old for England cricket fans.

And the pain and anguish which had seemed so far away this time yesterday has now come back in spades.

The worst you've ever felt? Have your say

First up, England collapse like a bunch of doddery grandmothers on a windy seafront, losing their last seven wickets for 47 runs.

"What say we shoot off now, before it gets worse?"

Then Australia thrash the visitors' attack all over the park, breaking scoring records more often than they break sweat.

If England were uniformly rubbish, it wouldn't be so bad.

If Test defeat followed Test defeat, you would simply cast off any attachment to the team and go on to live a life free of anguish.

But no. It could never be that simple. They have to put together little bursts of improvements which persuade you - like a fool - that the future could be a brighter place.

On Thursday morning England fans woke up to the most pleasant of daybreaks.

295-4? Vaughnie smashing his way to 177? The mood across the land lightened noticeably.

Could this be the start of the great fight-back? Could the dominant Aussie machine be under serious pressure?

Like starry-eyed, fresh-faced innocents, we dared to believe.

Come midnight on Thursday, the prospect of staying up late to listen to Test Match Special tempted many of us.

Who needs sleep when there are runs to be made?

Even those who had hit the hay before the start of play spent their hours of repose dreaming of great deeds Down Under.

Some of us were so excited that we even woke up at 3am to check the state of play. In our heads we imagined Alec Stewart laying waste to Warne and Gillespie, ably supported by Richard Dawson biffing his first Test half-century.

At least he could potentially do something about it

This merely illustrates that dreams never ever have any connection to reality, something which 13-year-old boys have known for a long time.

The depressed tones of Jonathan Agnew were the first clue that the natural order of things had been restored.

And as for Andy Caddick's bowling return - that was the ugliest set of figures seen at a sporting contest sport since Nigel Winterburn picked up Vinny Samways at a corner during the 1993 FA Cup semi-final.

Supporting the England cricket team is like having a long-standing girlfriend who treats you like scum.

Over the years she's snogged your best mates, abused you emotionally and let you down on innumerable occasions.

You know that she's bad for you; you know you should move on. But you can't let go. You've known her too long.

And every now and then, often after a few drinks, you find yourself thinking: hey - maybe I've been unfair on her. Deep down, she's a smashing girl.

No. Oh no. As soon as you open up and let her back in - bang. She's let you down again and copped off with your brother.

Let her go. Let England go. End the anguish. You've suffered enough.