Whitby father and son watch England reach Euro 2024 final in 'electric atmosphere' in Dortmund

The Three Lions came from behind to overhaul their Dutch opponents thanks to a contentious penalty won and netted by Harry Kane, and a dazzling 90th minute winner from sub Ollie Watkins.

Whitby’s Kevin Howard and his son Devon watched all the drama unfold and said the England fans helped cheer their team to glory.

"We were outnumbered by Dutch fans – there were waves of orange everywhere – but as the game went on, they were biting their finger nails as they were second best and our fans were singing the team home,” said Kevin.

He said the build-up to the game saw opposing football fans mingle and enjoy banter over a few pints, with some pubs clearly overwhelmed by the volume of people, but they didn't see any trouble whatsoever.

Some videos were circulating on social media of Dutch fans attacking English by throwing chairs at them but Kevin said it was an isolated incident with more than 100,000 fans present in the city.

Having got into the stadium just before a huge downpour, it threatened to rain goals too!

"We started well but they scored early, it was a good goal [by Xavi Simons to put the Netherlands in front],” said Kevin.

"As the game went on we felt confident.

”We didn’t see the incident for England’s penalty or any replays but the referee saw something; it was good for us as we had to come back to win the game.

"I thought England were the better team, we played well and moved up to another level.

"The substitutions worked well.”

As the game appeared to be heading into extra time, it was two of the subs – Cole Palmer and Watkins – who linked up to provide a moment of magic, with the latter netting superbly from an angle.

"We went ecstatic, there’s no finer feeling,” said Kevin.

"It’s one of those moment where you think ‘wow’, this is Roy of the Rovers stuff, it’s text book.

"It was written.”

They stayed in the ground after the game for a drink in the lounge and eventually got back to the hotel after midnight.

"We had a really good time and celebrated the win in style.”

They are now going to Berlin for Sunday’s final against Spain.

Looking ahead to the clash, Devon said: “It will be a good game of football – I can’t split it.

"It’ll be on a knife edge as they’re two evenly matched teams.

"I don’t think we will ever get a better chance of winning it.”

Devon said that although England have had some moments of fortune, they'd also made their own luck, notably Jude Bellingham’s stunning late overhead kick to spare them from a shock round of 16 defeat against Slovakia.

"We’re very much looking forward to Berlin,” he added.