We used to be able to rely on the fans turning up for these empty end-of-season pleasantries — it was the players we were worried about. Deliberate suspensions, inexplicably tight groins; you could bet on one or two England players starting their summer holiday early, the excuses thinly disguised.

Last night it was thousands of supporters who opted to stay away, and it was hard to blame them. Perhaps some of the players might not have minded skipping it too, given recent triumphs and traumas with their clubs but, almost to a man, Fabio Capello had been able to count them into the team hotel, probably ticking them off his register like a stern headmaster. It was proof that, whether the players like him or not, they respect him. It is evidence, too, that they have enough hope that this regime is going places that they do not want to risk missing the ride.

For Capello, it was the first small battle won in the long struggle to make this England squad believe in themselves. While getting the players to turn up for their country might not be much of an achievement (it is, after all, meant to be the stuff of dreams), it has not always been taken for granted. There were times under some of Capello’s predecessors when a call from England was the last thing a player wanted and you might have guessed as much if you watched some of the matches.

For their clubs, most of the England players are accustomed to winning and being fêted. For England, they turn up to huge expectations, fall short and get slated. This is not an expression of sympathy, simply one of fact. Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher retired when they still had plenty to offer and several other players have privately threatened to follow them in recent months, including one of last night’s starting line-up.

Gerrard digs hole after ‘graveyard shift’

If the Liverpool captain is to be an integral part of Fabio Capello’s plans, it will not be at the heart of midfield

Capello has admitted that changing the psychology is his biggest challenge; more so than finding a goalscoring alternative to Michael Owen or accommodating Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the same team (something he has yet to confront with any greater acumen or bravery than that shown by Sven-Göran Eriksson or Steve McClaren, incidentally, even though there was a clear pointer in Gareth Barry’s sublime assist to Gerrard with Lampard off the field).

He has seen players excel for their clubs, and in training sessions, only to look imposters in England shirts. He has seen England stars calmly score penalties in a European Cup final, knowing that they will be gibbering wrecks when faced with the same test in international colours.

So rebuilding confidence from the wreckage of failed campaigns, most notably the inability to qualify for Euro 2008, has been the most pressing task. He has set about it not by pampering or administering soothing words, you will be pleased to hear, but by challenging the senior players to fight for the captaincy, hoping that it coaxes out the leader in four or five of them, and by imposing a solid team structure when it comes to tactics.

Alarmed by his squad’s timidity against Switzerland in his opening match, for the second in Paris in March Capello pretty much ordered them to get hold of the ball and keep it for as long as possible, even if that meant passing it backwards or sideways. It bored us to tears — and it did not stop England losing — but it succeeded in avoiding a possession count of 85 per cent to France.

Last night was the next tentative step forward: to try to keep the ball in the opponents’ territory. Albeit against a ropey USA, they did it to an acceptable degree, although noticeably it needed the goals to bring real surges in confidence.

Now Capello must try to accelerate this improvement in time for the trip to Zagreb to face Croatia in September in only the second World Cup qualifier, a match which might bring out the cold sweats in those players who froze there under McClaren in 2006.

To that end, the Italian will believe that his team took another step forward last night, that they showed the first glimpses of authority against modest opposition. He will believe that he is getting into their heads, starting to repair their fragile self-belief, to harden them up.

He might be right, and let us hope so. Because there is plenty else to occupy him — from shedding the reliance on David Beckham’s set-pieces to finding a settled midfield configuration — once he has made strides with the mental part.