Harry Kane netted 25 Premier League goals as Tottenham finished third this season

But England's forgettable friendly against Portugal the other night was still illuminated by a moment of wonder.

What a joy it was to see Harry Kane immediately spring up and start chasing after the loose ball, even though he had been the victim of an outrageous flying boot assault by an opponent.

Portugal defender Bruno Alves had committed an outrageously reckless foul, when the studs of his boot connected with Kane's head some six feet up in the air.

Almost every professional footballer of the modern age in Kane's situation at Wembley would have rolled around on the turf in theatrical fashion, whether the agony was real or feigned.

The England striker, knowing he wasn't hurt, instinctively wanted to get on with the game. So he did, like a boy for whom Wembley was a playground.

Glory be, it was a moment to savour - certainly if you had also been at the Champions League final last weekend and seen the Real Madrid defender Pepe indulge in several episodes of the most pathetic gamesmanship, feigning injury and insult to try to get an opponent into trouble.

I know which style of football I prefer.

Wouldn't the game be much better for being played with decency and honesty, like Harry Kane?

Almost immediately, though, the pundits and the cynics were debating whether the Spurs star had been foolish and naive.

England U21 manager Gareth Southgate was among the ITV panel assessing the match and he wondered whether, in a tournament fixture, Kane should have stayed down to ensure that the perpetrator of the foul received a red card.

It is the professional outlook, shared by so many people in football. And it chimes with the view that if England are to prosper in major events like Euro 2016, which starts on Friday, they must be more streetwise in their approach.

That means more gamesmanship, more sly fouls and more cynicism - being more like Pepe than Harry Kane.

The best answer to this view of sport is the one provided by the referee at Wembley.

He didn't require Kane to respond with amateur dramatics to know that he had seen a red-card foul and he sent off Alves without hesitation. Yes, football can be played and controlled with honesty.

Harry Kane has scored five goals in 12 England appearances since making his debut last year

As for the rest of England's friendly encounter against Portugal, well, it was a warm-up match and they really don't matter.

Sometimes a tactical experiment works, sometimes it doesn't. It was good and instructive for manager Roy Hodgson to discover that using Kane, Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney as an attacking trio appears fatally flawed.

One of them, most likely Vardy, will have to be content with a role as an impact substitute at Euro 2016.

Anyone using this warm-up game to assess England's prospects at the tournament is comprehensively wasting their time.

The truth is that we simply have no idea how Hodgson's team will shape up in the heat of competition against Russia, Wales, Slovakia and hopefully beyond.

They have a depth of attacking talent that is already making rival nations nervous - Italy boss Antonio Conte, for example, reckons England are one of the favourites.

They also have a brittle rearguard likely to concede soft goals even from set-pieces, despite defenders with a powerful physical presence.

England have trusted in a squad with the lowest average age at Euro 2016. It means they could suffer badly at key moments because of their inexperience in the international arena. Yes, they will be vulnerable.

Equally, it could send them dashing out with the freedom and inhibition of youth, symbolised by talents like Dele Alli and Marcus Rashford.

Hodgson's braves will be feared by all the rest.

What they must do, surely, is to revel in the playground football spirit of Harry Kane, to play with hunger and intelligence and, above all, a sense of fun.

It could take them a long way, and it will make them a team to be proud of.