Pictures of England fans in Kent through the decades as county braces for Euro 2024 final vs Spain

From ecstasy to agony, our classic archive pictures from across Kent capture the highs and lows of supporting England in major finals.

With the Three Lions vying for Euros glory tonight, reporter Rhys Griffiths looks back over almost three decades of cheering on the national team - and, despite repeated disappointments, still daring to hope…

There have been a handful of times in my life as a football fan when events on the pitch have reduced me to tears. Sometimes of joy, more often of pain, despair, heartbreak and regret for what might have been.

I will never forget the first time. June 26, 1996. I was a 12-year-old in love with the game in that special way reserved for care-free childhood when football still feels like the most important thing in the world.

Like everyone else that summer, I’d been swept along in the excitement of Euro ‘96. And when Germany goalkeeper Andreas Köpke fell – ‘dived’ feels too strong a word – to his right to keep out Gareth Southgate’s tame spot kick, it felt like the world had come crashing down around me.

Tears were shed, and for the first (and certainly not the last) time I felt the searing disappointment of seeing England come up short in a major tournament. Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds sang of 30 years of hurt that summer – now, as we await this evening’s final against Spain, 58 years and counting.

It was not long after that heartbreaking June evening that I read for the first time Nick Hornby’s classic meditation on what it means to be a football supporter, Fever Pitch. In the book he muses on the fact that football fans do not measure life in calendar years, but in seasons running August to May. Similarly, the meandering path of life can be plotted by the memories of