By Andrew Benson Motorsport editor at Silverstone

Silverstone ensured England football fans were catered for

The spirit of competition runs deep in Formula One - even to the point of fighting over where the media should watch the England game.

Most teams had the match on in their motorhomes, and Silverstone played it on giant screens around the track in an attempt to stop potential spectators from staying at home.

In the F1 paddock, McLaren, Honda and Toyota all tried to persuade as many journalists as possible to join them.

McLaren did their best to play up the intra-team national rivalry with engine partner Mercedes, whose personnel had wallowed in Friday's 4-2 victory over Costa Rica by wearing black, orange and yellow wigs.

For Saturday's game, the English contingent waited until qualifying started and then decked out the inside of the team's flash "communications centre" with St George's crosses.

At Honda, there was the chance of Jenson Button dropping by - after all, he needed cheering up following the team's abysmal performance in qualifying.

But both were trumped by Toyota, who had a 65-inch high definition TV screen, a nice spread of food and former Liverpool striker Ian Rush as special guest.

The presence of a football legend persuaded both Toyota drivers to drop by early on.

Ralf Schumacher took one look at the 1-0 scoreline, slapped your correspondent on the shoulder and said: "So, England are going to lose then?" Call it German humour.

Jarno Trulli also popped by a little later to tell Rush rather shyly: "I was a big fan of yours when I was little."

England most probably scored too early and when Michael Owen went off they settled for the 1-0 win Ian Rush

It didn't take Rush long to spot the England game-plan.

"It's definitely a case of the long ball," he said not long into the first-half.

But by the end of the first half, the Welshman, who made it clear he was supporting England, was relatively happy.

"For the first 20 minutes, England were superb," he said. "The first goal was definitely down to the quality of Beckham's cross.

"England have a Plan A and a Plan B. When Rooney is not there, Plan B comes into action and Crouch has done a fantastic job.

"Beckham is not going to get to the byline, he's going to cross from 10-20 yards inside the half to Crouch, and England hope Lampard or Gerrard will get to the knock-down."

Rush predicted, correctly as it turned out, that England would "hang on and not go for another goal", adding: "I don't think Paraguay look like scoring."

But 10 minutes into the second half, he suddenly was not so sure and criticised the decision to take Michael Owen off so early.

When Rooney is not there, Plan B comes into action and Crouch has done a fantastic job Ian Rush

"It got a bit tight in the second half," he said. "But I don't think England have done anything wrong, because the most important thing is three points.

"They most probably scored too early and when Michael Owen went off they settled for the 1-0 win."

He even thought England still had a good chance of winning the World Cup despite the indifferent start.

"You don't want to peak too early," he said. "I think they are quite capable of doing a lot better.

"But they've got win the group. They don't want to be playing Germany in the second round - if it was Costa Rica, Poland or Ecuador, they'd beat them."

And would England have any chance of beating Brazil and Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Adriano?

"You've just got to hope they have an off day," said Rush of the magic quartet.