As far as England supporters are concerned, there are not many major tournaments in recent years that can be looked on with great fondness.

Aside from famously winning the World Cup in 1966 and reaching the semi-finals of the same tournament 24 years later and Euro 96, there has been very little to shout about.

Never was that truer than in the performances that the Three Lions produced under Kevin Keegan's management at the European Championships in 2000, where they spurned a two-goal lead in the opener against Portugal, beat rivals Germany, only to then be dumped out at the group stages following a 3-2 defeat by Romania.

Yet, there was perhaps the odd clue about what was to come during the final warm-up encounter for that competition, which was played 15 years ago today.

Keegan's men made the trip to Ta' Qali - a small village in Malta, who would provide the opposition made up mainly of part-time footballers.

A routine victory for the away side, including a few goals, was what had been anticipated, but by the time that the final whistle was blown, there was little room for optimism going forward.

However, when Martin Keown headed England in front in the 23rd minute, all appeared to be going well. The centre-back ghosted in to meet David Beckham's cross, which he duly nodded into the back of the net.

Just nine minutes later, though, the hosting minnows were level. England's debutant goalkeeper Richard Wright brought down David Carabott inside the area. The Maltese midfielder dusted himself down to take the resultant penalty, which struck the post and hit Wright on the back of the head before crossing the line.

From that moment onwards, despite creating a host of opportunities, England seemed to toil in the heat.

Kevin Phillips, Paul Scholes, Sol Campbell and Paul Ince were all guilty of wasting good chances, although the away side were able to score a winning goal 15 minutes from time.

Winger Nicky Barmby, who was probably the only England player to come out of the game with any credit, cut the ball back from the left for Emile Heskey to score the first of his seven international goals.

There was still time for Wright to concede a second penalty of the game when he bundled over substitute Nenad Veselji, but on this occasion the Ipswich Town keeper made amends by saving Carabott's kick from 12 yards.

Speaking after his team's less than impressive display, Keegan said: "We got a goal and then gave away a goal. It was a harder game than perhaps we thought but I'd sooner get a performance like that out of the way," he said.

"People will say if we play like that we can't win Euro 2000. We are better than that. It was just a little stutter hopefully. We are a better team than Malta. We will go with a fit 22 but we have to play better."

Malta: Barry (Muscat); Said (Dimech), Spiteri (Okonkwo), Vella (Theuma), Debono (Camilleri); Buttigieg (Chetcuti), Busuttil (Nwoko), Carabott (Ciantar), Turner (Veselji); Brincat (Holland), Aguis (Mallia)

England: Wright; G Neville, Keown (Southgate), Campbell, P Neville; Beckham (Barry) Wise (Ince), Scholes (McManaman), Barmby; Shearer (Heskey), Phillips (Fowler)