With the dust now settling after England's World Cup semi-final exit to Croatia, the Leader's sports writers offer their assessment of England's overall performance.

Proud Englishmen Tom Norris and Charlie Croasdale reflect on a memorable tournament from Gareth Southgate's Lions.

TOM NORRIS:

What a ride it has been.

Few dared to dream England could reach even the knockout stages when the World Cup started on June 14, and even fewer believed a semi-final spot was possible when Harry Kane popped up in stoppage time to snatch victory against Tunisia.

But since then, and the first game nerves out of the way, Gareth Southgate's young men have flourished, becoming only the third England team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.

The haters will argue that England beat nobody of any merit on the way to the last four, but this was a team that were humiliated by Iceland in Euro 2016, we know how to mess up even the most straightforward of fixtures.

Once we got out of an easy looking group we ran straight into the knockout stages, the wider public only too happy to share the stats about England's last win when it really mattered.

Fear not, this band of brothers held their nerve to beat Colombia. And they effectively had to do it twice. It seemed to be going smoothly until England gifted Yerry Mina a free header with seconds left on the clock.

On the ropes this young team regathered their composure and ended another unwanted record by winning the penalty shootout, even after falling behind in the most pressurised environment.

Sweden were brushed off as an inconvenience, before Croatia came into the rear view mirror.

What might have been. Kieran Trippier gave us the lead and Kane should have made it 2-0, or passed to Raheem Sterling, who would surely have tapped home.

That would have been it, game done. Croatia were struggling and it was a long way back from here. Zlatko Dalic's side would have had to commit men forward and England could have exploited the space.

It wasn't to be. In fact, there was an inevitable feel to proceedings as Mario Mandzukic took advantage of some tired defending to fire the winner in extra-time after Ivan Perisic had forced the additional 30 minutes.

It was a miserable end to what has been a fantastic summer of football, one that has united England behind what is a young group of players.

On Wednesday, the sun was shining and England were in the World Cup and the next day it was raining as Southgate's men prepared for the unwanted third place play-off.

It will come home, we've just got to wait a little longer.

CHARLIE CROASDALE:

However much we wanted to enjoy the moment, despair took over as England squandered the best chance they will ever get to reach a World Cup final.

I never thought I’d see us reach a World Cup semi-final – years of bitterly disappointing failure had put paid to that – and it all felt a bit surreal when Kieran Trippier’s free-kick thundered into the top corner on Wednesday night.

I’ve never seen a major tournament semi-final before where one side had so many clear-cut first-half chances. How did Kane miss from a yard? Why couldn’t Alli and Lingard find the target from 18 yards? These are questions we’ll no doubt be running through our minds over the coming weeks.

England were excellent in the opening 45 minutes but you simply have to be more clinical at the highest level. If you’re not, quality sides punish you. Croatia switched to a narrower system in the second-half, allowing Modric and Perisic more influence, and began to overrun England’s midfield, to the extent that it became inevitable they would equalise.

If I have one major criticism of Gareth Southgate, he watched on for 75 minutes after half-time as his side were completely outplayed, yet failed to change the system or introduce an extra body to bolster the midfield. His insistence on keeping two men upfront (when taking Sterling off for either Delph or Loftus-Cheek could have significantly helped) ultimately cost England a place in the final they so desperately craved.

However, the fact we’re even analysing a semi-final defeat for England is a sign of how far this group have come in such a short space of time. The national team was in turmoil when Southgate took charge in an almost-apologetic fashion just under two years ago, weighed down by an apathy towards international football from the English public in the post Euro 2016/Allardyce fall-out. People weren’t angry, they’d just stopped caring about England.

Southgate has united the country with a young, hard-working, predominantly working-class, humble squad of players, who will rightly return home from the World Cup with their heads held high.

They’ve broken down both social and footballing boundaries. A multi-cultural team who came together as one, to score that last-minute winner, to end that penalty hoodoo, to finally win a knockout match in 90 minutes. Back home they have provided us with a blissful month, where suddenly everyone’s problems and worries became inconsequential because football might finally be coming home.

The team will head home now, but football won’t. But perhaps maybe, just maybe, we have a team capable of delivering on their promise to the nation in two or four years’ time.