Hundreds of football fans who had been shouting themselves silly just minutes before trooped silently out of a packed out theatre at full-time today.

They had arrived at Durham's Gala Theatre, almost universally bleary eyed, from 7am filled with hope that England would triumph over Brazil.

But, defeat finally a reality, they were now, as one young woman succinctly put it, "absolutely flat, flat as a pancake."

Another fan, one of the few bearing a St George's Cross flag, agreed. "And it's not even like we can argue about it, Brazil were just better than us." The sentiment received a few murmurs of consent, even from football-mad 12-year-old Ian Engelbrecht who managed to come up with a defiant 'the team will be back for the next one, at least apart from that flamin' David Seaman.'

Five minutes later, in a scene repeated across the region and the country, the roads began to fill with cars manned by sober-looking drivers on their way to work and streets which had been empty, began to open up for business.

Elsewhere there were reports that life returned to normal fairly swiftly after the match. "It's been pretty much all quiet, business as usual," said inspector Ian Coates of Darlington Police.

"During the match it was very, very quiet indeed, naturally enough, and I'm pleased to say there's certainly been no adverse reaction from any fans."

The world of work and school soon got back to normal. At St Francis Xavier School in Richmond, North Yorkshire, excited pupils had arrived early to watch the match on a big screen.

"It was good fun and they all had bacon butties at half time, but it was long faces and back to lessons straight afterwards," said Angela Ryan, manning the school reception. "Luckily we've got the mayor coming to hand out jubilee medals so that should cheer them up a bit."

At the giant car plant of Nissan at Washington, workers also trooped out to face the long day ahead in a scene repeated at workplaces elsewhere. But for the estimated 10m across the country taking the day off, at least there was a chance to come to terms with the defeat with the odd tipple.