WAS it luck or skill that saw England beat Albania in the recent World Cup qualifier? If the opinions of many fans questioned after the Euro 2000 tournament is anything to go by, then, sadly, it will be the former.

A sample of supporters questioned as part of a study put England's defeat by Portugal last year down to poor skills and the wrong players being picked, yet the team's victory over Germany - with an Alan Shearer goal - was attributed to sheer luck.

We use the word "luck," many times - "Oh, you're so lucky," we say to colleagues who are about to jet off on holiday to a sun-kissed beach.

Yet, when you think about it, they're not really lucky. Unless they've won their holiday in a big cash prize draw, good fortune doesn't come into it.

When it's your turn to go on leave, you would be able to pop to the travel agents and do exactly the same thing. Luck doesn't come into it - you don't have to touch wood or throw salt over your shoulder to make it happen.

Some may say that the Sussex woman who had just left her house before a plane crashed into it was lucky.

She had to leave the house a little earlier than usual to collect her friend's children from school. That's not what I call luck, just being in the right place at the right time.

Luck is a strange phenomenon. We behave in odd ways to make sure we attract the good and avoid the bad. Even those among us - like my husband - who dismiss things like luck and fate as superstitious nonsense would rather walk around a ladder than under it.

And I have one friend who, after walking under a ladder by accident, insisted on walking out backwards to remove the bad luck - a hazardous move if ever I saw one, particularly as we were on a busy high street in the middle of a manic January sales queue.

I remember as a student (yes, I can still recall certain events that far back) when, after being badly let down by a friend, I got the last seat on the last coach from London to my North-East home on Christmas Eve.

I remember being elated and thinking how lucky I was, that it was meant to be, that I was meant to spend the holiday with my family after all. I thought someone up there loved me - until I sat down.

I spent the next six hours beside a man who had serious BO, appalling halitosis and was going for the world record in non-stop talking about the joys of quad biking. I'll never forget it, and have not travelled by coach since.

Even believers must admit that, when it does befall you, good luck is inconsistent. I recently won a few shopping vouchers in a prize draw - then, as I happily contemplated how to spend them, a radiator sprang a leak, costing us far more than I'd won.

Every week, millions of people cross their fingers hoping for a certain set of numbers to appear on the television.

They clutch horseshoes and charm bracelets, they pull wishbones and cross their fingers - yet only a handful have reason to smile after the Lottery draw, where, for the punter, luck certainly plays a major part.

As for football - unless it's a dodgy penalty decision, or your opponent trips over his boot laces during a key tackle, I can't see how luck can come into it.

Surely there has to be some skill involved in putting the ball in the back of the net, particularly at that level.

Of course, I may be wrong - maybe the England fans know something we don't. Perhaps Shearer wore a rabbit's foot around his neck and slipped on a four-leaf clover as he shot for goal.

If luck does make a difference to the country's most worshipped game, maybe England boss Sven Goran Eriksson should see to it that a black cat crosses the path of the Greek players' coach before the next World Cup qualifying game!