ENGLAND'S penalty shoot-out jinx struck again last night as they crashed out of Euro 2004 in a storm of controversy.

The dramatic exit against host nation Portugal came after England had been denied what appeared to be a perfectly good winning goal seconds from the end of normal time.

Sol Campbell's headed "winner" was disqualified, leaving England feeling robbed and facing extra-time with the score at 1-1.

All seemed lost when Portugal took the lead in the second half of extra-time, only for Frank Lampard to keep English hopes alive with an equaliser.

But after David Beckham ballooned the opening penalty over the bar, followed by another miss by Darius Vassell, England's dream was over.

England had taken the lead after just three minutes through Michael Owen but the night began to turn sour when teenage wonder kid Wayne Rooney had to be substituted due to injury before half-time.

Sven Goran Eriksson's men had been outplayed for much of the night but showed tremendous character to take the game down to the wire.

Afterwards, Eriksson said: "To lose in this way is very hard. The spirit has been fantastic and I have no complaints about anything - the players and the atmosphere have been fantastic."

He added: "I don't want to comment on the referee - but we were not lucky with some things out there tonight. That's football unfortunately.

"From the bench it looked all right. I haven't seen it on television but the referee said it was a push and he decides."

A spokesman for bookmaker William Hill said Portugal were now 9/4 second favourites to win the tournament, with France favourites at 2/1.

Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush said: "We have escaped a world record pay-out on England winning the tournament and made big money on the gamble, but as fans and businessmen we wanted to see England march on as we've never seen interest so big."

Earlier, more than 1,500 homes living in the Staindrop area, near Darlington, were plunged into darkness at 5pm.

Eight hundred had their power restored by 8pm but by then scores had already fled the area to find a TV set to watch the game.

The blackout was caused by damage to a high voltage distribution network.

See Back Pag