THE victorious England heroes today touched on home soil in the early hours of this morning after their unbelieveable 5-1 victory over Germany in Munich.

But a crowd of excited fans who had travelled to Newcastle Airport to meet them were left disappointed.

They were kept behind a fence as the players and officials left the plane and were herded on to a coach parked alongside their plane on the airport Tarmac.

Cheers of excitement rang out as the plane doors opened and hat-trick hero Michael Owen and fellow members of the triumphant team filed out to the awaiting coach taking them to the luxury Slaley Hall Hotel, Northumberland, which is to be their base for the next few days as they prepare to take on Albania on Wednesday.

The enthusiastic noises which greeted the team's arrival could scarcely mask the disappointment that the players would not get to meet their adoring fans. John and Edna Chapman travelled from Crook for a glimpse of the returning heroes.

Mr Chapman, 58, said: "I am bitterly disappointed that we aren't going to see the team.

"It is a cause for celebration and they would have got a tremendous reception. "If you could have harnessed the noise in every pub and every house in the country while the goals were being scored it would have been incredible.

"These players are the heroes of the country, everybody puts them on a pedestal.

"Kids have had no chance to see their heroes."

Thirty-eight-year-old Home Office civil servant Dave Havery said: "It is very disappointing. If England had lost you could understand their worries but the FA should have changed their plans in light of the 5-1 win."

The fans got a closer glimpse of the triumphant team as the team coach was led out under police escort.

FA officials who left the airport through the terminal building refused to comment on the arrangements for the team's return before leaving in a fleet of Jaguars.