NOT for nothing did Rudyard Kipling name his most famous poem "If". In the context of Kipling's work, the single word encapsulates the inspiration and motivation that can be derived from self-empowerment and personal integrity. It hammers home the power of positivity.

Use the same two letters differently, however, and they resonate equally forcefully in an entirely different direction. If only this had happened, that would have worked out right. If only he hadn't done that, we wouldn't have had to do something else. Equally emotive - just reflective rather than rousing.

On first inspection, Sir Bobby Robson would appear to have little in common with Kipling, one of England's true literary greats. But, just like the poet and novelist, one of the North-East's favourite sons cites the word "If" as one of the cornerstones of his career.

"If is the biggest word I've known in football," said the former Newcastle and England boss in his newly-released autobiography, Farewell but not Goodbye.

"If only. Such is the margin between failure and success."

He was referring, of course, to the greatest "If only" moment English football has ever seen - the 1990 World Cup semi-final against Germany.

Never has one game so perfectly encapsulated football's incredible ability to turn a split-second act into the sole arbitrator between glorious victory and devastating defeat.

While the game's dramatic denouement has become entrenched in football folklore, it is worth remembering the context in which it took place.

England, who had begun the tournament in such inauspicious fashion with a 1-1 draw against the Republic of Ireland, were taking on a German side boasting Jurgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaus, widely viewed as two of the greatest players in the world.

After the opening game of the competition, The Sun had urged the FA to "Send them home" - by the end of the semi-final, the whole country could barely believe England's tournament was over.

The entire population needed someone to blame, some way to explain what had gone wrong. If only Gazza hadn't lost his head, if only Pearce had directed his spot-kick rather better, if only Waddle had kept his head down. Those two words underlining how close we had come, and yet how far away we were.

"In our world that night there was no glow, no warmth, only the solitude of defeat," explained Robson.

"Yet Italia 90 was a turning point for the English game. Somehow, the country was reunited with their team.

"Gallant failure is not a language I like to adopt but I also know the margin between victory and defeat that night was painfully thin."

It could not have been any thinner.

Things were not going well when Andreas Brehme's deflected free-kick gave Germany a 59th-minute lead, but England were back on level terms when Gary Lineker fired home ten minutes from time. If only that hadn't gone in, things might have been far easier to accept.

In it went, though, and, after a period of extra-time that saw both Chris Waddle and Guido Buchwald hit the post, the game was decided on penalties.

Gary Lineker, Peter Beardsley and David Platt all scored impeccably as the first six spot-kicks found the back of the net. If only one of them had gone fourth or fifth.

Instead, those spots were filled by Pearce and Waddle. What happened next was to deprive Robson of the chance of winning the greatest prize in football and rob the whole of England of its biggest sporting occasion since 1966.

"At three-three, Stuart walked towards the spot," remembered Robson. "

This'll be four-three,' I told myself. Pearce was a strong character and tough. He had the moral fibre.

"'I know he'll bloody well hit it, that's for sure,' I thought. 'He won't try and be clever and do something he's never done before. Oh no, he'll whack it.'

"Well, he did, but he whacked it just a little bit straight. The keeper went one way, stretched out his leg and redirected the ball over the bar. Olaf Thon took another cracking penalty for the Germans, so now it was all up to Chris.

"'Come on, Chris, knock it in, put pressure on them to score the fifth,' I muttered. Chris ran up, lost his shape, leaned back and whacked it over the bar. The players were inconsolable."

From the jaws of victory, England had snatched the most heart-wrenching of defeats.

Yet the missed penalties were not the only "If only" moments in the game. If only Paul Gascoigne, who had been such an inspirational figure in England's run to the last four, hadn't been booked for an innocuous foul on Thomas Berthold, perhaps things might have turned out differently.

The yellow card meant Gascoigne would have missed the World Cup final had England won the game and prompted the tears that led to one of the most iconic images football has ever seen.

"I can appreciate how crushed Paul would have felt had we beaten the Germans that night in Turin," said Robson.

"The affection we all felt for him only added to the poignancy of his booking."

Yet what if that yellow card had not been shown and those tears had not flown so freely? Perhaps neither Gascoigne nor Robson would have come to hold such a privileged place in football's hall of fame.

In one of Kipling's most famous lines, he claims: "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same...you'll be a man, my son." Robson has clearly mastered that art.

"When you leave school at 15 and end up becoming the manager of England - the Prime Minister of football - you have to be proud of what you have achieved in your life," he said earlier this week.

"I'm immensely proud of what I've achieved and, if my parents were still alive, I hope they would be too."

One final dream prefaced by yet another "If".