So we hosed ourselves down after we clambered, squelching with disgust, out of that cesspit of ignorance and filth called the Bernabeu.

And just when we were starting to feel clean again, many of those of us who had listened slack-jawed in the stadium to 30,000 men and women screaming racist taunts at Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips, were condemned for being appalled.

We were told we were hypocrites for demanding retribution against the Spanish because we were forgetting that only two decades ago, morons at English football grounds were throwing bananas at John Barnes and Ces Podd.

It was as if the sins of our fathers were somehow supposed to disqualify us from insisting that severe action must be taken against Spanish football and its indulgence of racists in its game.

Well, I'm sorry, but the best friends of the racist scum in Madrid are the people among us who say we should keep our mouths shut because of our own past failings.

The allies of the fascist morons among the Ultras Sur are the people among us who say we should keep quiet until we have put our own house in order.

Frozen by a paralysing political correctness that knows no bounds, they would rather turn away in shame and shake their heads than confront the issue.

Just because English football is still laced with racial problems, that must not prevent us from celebrating the progress we have made and screaming our abhorrence at the animals who desecrated the Bernabeu.

Perhaps it is hard to stomach for those who have spent a lifetime apologising for the behaviour of England supporters but the fact is, we are not the bad guys any more.

Because of the determined work of groups like Kick It Out, because of the work of men like former Chelsea player Paul Elliott and Piara Powar, because of the work of most of our football clubs, things have changed.

Of course, we still have problems. There are still Neanderthals like the handful of goons who yelled racist abuse at Dwight Yorke at Blackburn on Sunday.

And in my home town, Macclesfield, the local Macclesfield Express revealed last week, before events in Spain, that there were problems at Moss Rose.

"Crackdown by Silkmen on Racism," the front page headline said after racist chanting during recent matches.

"We have become aware that this is a growing problem among a handful of supporters and we want to nip it in the bud," club chairman Rob Bickerton said.

Credit to him for that. Credit to all the work Kick It Out does. Credit to those who point out there are still only three black managers among our 92 league clubs.

We are not perfect in England. We are far from perfect. But we have come a long way since the days in the early Eighties when I used to stand on the terraces at Stockport's Edgeley Park and watch Bradford City's Podd, standing a few yards away at left-back, subjected to terrible abuse.

I don't see that any more. Instead, I hear Cole talking about the sense of foreboding he has when he travels to matches abroad because he knows the problem is worse almost everywhere else than it is here. That makes me feel proud. Proud that at least we are trying to do something about it. And proud that we are so disgusted by infestations of the disease when they show themselves at places like Blackburn and Macclesfield.

In Spain, they didn't seem to think they had a problem. They couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Not even after their manager called Thierry Henry "a black s**t".

They thought their racism was funny. I didn't. It made me feel sick.

That's why I think it's worth shouting about.