Cook marshals a near faultless display

It says something about the trepidation among England supporters, something about the years of hurt and disappointment, something about the number of times they have been stung by Ashes defeats that, even at the start of the fourth day, even with Australia requiring a record fourth-innings total, there was a sense of fear and foreboding around the ground in Cardiff on Saturday morning.

It was not that they did not have confidence in their side. It was they did not dare have hope. It has, so often, been the hope that hurts.

But there is hope for the future of this England side's future now. By the end of a golden day - a golden four days - for England cricket, everything seemed possible. All of a sudden it seems reasonable to presume that, if you re-watch the DVDs today, Paul Gascoigne will make that slide in Euro 96, Mark Cueto's try will stand in the rugby World Cup final of 2007 and Muhammad Ali won't get up from Henry Cooper's left hook at Wembley in 1963. After the Cardiff Test, almost anything seems possible in English sport.

Maybe we should not be surprised. Australia's record away from home is modest - they have now lost 11 of their last 17 away Tests and they have won only one of their last 15 Tests in England (or Wales) - while England have now won five of their last six home Tests. It is, after all, 14 years since Australia won the Ashes away from home.

Suddenly, Australia are the side with all the problems. The cracks in their team - its lack of balance, its age, its injuries, its discomfort on slow surfaces, its three-man seam attack and its wicketkeeper living on past performances - can no longer be obscured. Certainly, they did nothing to disprove Jason Gillespie's suggestion that they had a Dad's Army look to them. In due course, we may reflect that they are, like the England side in Australia in 2013-14, at the end of their life cycle as a team.

Perhaps it is too early to draw such conclusions. There are four matches to go, after all, and as we saw in 2005 and 1997, sides are capable of coming from behind to win Ashes series. There will be no complacency from England. But there will be confidence.

The fact is, England looked the better side in this game. While it is true that they benefited hugely from the dropping of Joe Root in the first innings, they appeared to have more discipline with the ball and more application with the bat. In these conditions - and it is a long time since we have seen a quick Test wicket in England - their ability to bowl a "relentless" line and length, in Alastair Cook's words, is a major asset. There is no more mileage in Australia complaining about the pitches here as there is England asking for a slower Perth wicket.

The convenient narrative will suggest that England have been freed up by the promotion of Paul Farbrace and the arrival of Trevor Bayliss. And no doubt both have made important contributions.

But this has been a performance that has been coming for some time. We saw in Antigua, in Grenada and at Lord's that England were attempting to play a more aggressive style of cricket. We saw, from the time that Ben Stokes cemented his place in the side in the Caribbean, that England benefitted from the presence of four seamers offering slightly different angles of attack - swing, seam, pace and reliability - and offering more opportunity to keep the two strike bowlers just that little bit fresher.

And we saw the benefit of a deep batting line-up with a man good enough to score an ODI century as an opening batsman coming in at No. 8. England now have depth with bat and ball and look less reliant upon one or two standout performances. There are still some questions to answer, but they are looking ever more solid as a team.

That may have been the most pleasing aspect of this victory. Almost everyone contributed. Stuart Broad delivered perhaps his most consistently good performance for a long time - he has been excellent in patches, but rarely so good throughout a match - Gary Ballance and Ian Bell made the contributions they required to regain some confidence and the time England spent practising their catching practise in Spain ("we practised our catching from first thing in the morning to last thing at night," Cook said) was rewarded with a series of outstanding efforts. Only one chance was missed; that was a significant improvement on recent efforts.

Among the many positives to emerge from this match from an England perspective, one of the most surprising, was to see Cook out-captain Michael Clarke. Almost everything Cook attempted in the field worked: his decision to stick with Bell at slip was rewarded with some fine catches - and a player whose confidence was not further eroded by more demotion - while recalling Moeen Ali for the over before lunch on the fourth day brought the immediate wicket of David Warner with a fine arm ball.

Equally, the decision to have a short-leg for Clarke - setting him up for the short ball - and then luring him into an unbalanced drive with his weight on the back foot was masterful. The short midwickets, the decision to give Root a bowl and the gamble with asking Broad to bowl on the third morning with the new ball just 10 overs away were all innovative and were all rewarded.

Cook may well have to temper his style of batting if he is to get the best out of himself in the long term - he became a record-breaking player through accumulation, not aggression - but, in the field at least, he has never had a better game as leader.

"We always tried to take the attacking option," a modest Cook said afterwards. "But as a captain, you're only as good as your bowlers and our bowlers were brilliant.

"It was really important for this group of players to show we can compete with Australia. It shows that, if we do the basics well and play with that kind of attitude, we can put Australia under pressure.

"It won't work every time but if we can go out there and show off our talent - we keep talking about that - then we're a dangerous side."

An entertaining one, too. All of a sudden the future looks a little brighter. All of a sudden, spectators are starting to share the team's belief: England can win the Ashes.