New World Cup anthem... born in village on Horsham's doorstep

The Fox pub was the birthplace for England I Still Believe, the new World Cup single from Scouting for Girls.

The song comes from Roy Stride, Scouting For Girls’ lead singer, and from Will Frost, a Nestle employee who admits his only previous experience with rhyming couplets involved writing bad teenage poetry. Both of them live in the village.

Will explains: “Roy was one of the first people I met when we moved to the village, down from London. We were both standing on the touchlines watching our sons play football.

“We have been playing five-a-side football for a couple of years, and in the pub afterwards one night, the talk turned to the England football team and whether we were excited or not. I said that I wasn’t exactly excited then, but that I would be because the England football team is like an ex-girlfriend that you never ever get over and that once you see at a party, you still get excited no matter how many times she has let you down before. It always feels like it is better to go for it and get heartbroken than not go for it at all.

“We were talking, and I didn’t think any more about it, and then about a month ago, Roy was chatting in the pub and he said ‘You know what you said about the England football team being like an ex-girlfriend…’ He said he liked the idea and was planning to write a song around it. He wanted to use that idea, that you always give the team another chance. He had England I Still Believe as the chorus but not much else. We started emailing and whatsapping some lyrics back and forth.

“I went round one Sunday. He has got a little studio in his house, and it was fascinating for me, having no musical background or experience, watching him chop away and the song come alive. By the Monday, we pretty much had the song. It was essentially just him on the piano, but over the next two weeks we built it up into what the single is now.”

Will has even got an official co-writing credit on the track, which was “unexpected”: “I was just along for the laugh, but Roy said it was divided between whoever is in the room at the time. I was the instigator for the song and wrote a good deal of the lyrics, probably half or so.”

The single is available from the usual download platforms.