Theo Walcott became a national hero - then had to ask his mum to let him in

But before his 3am return home Theo Walcott had scored a hat-trick for England.

As a result, Lynn Walcott was in forgiving mood when her 19-year-old flew home from Croatia early yesterday.

Typical teenager: After flying home from stealing the show in Croatia, Theo Walcott had to ask his mother to stay up late to let him in

Mrs Walcott, 45, who had watched the 4-1 victory on television as her son single-handedly relieved the gloom surrounding the national side, said: 'I was at home on my own, my husband went to Croatia, he couldn't miss that.

'Theo phoned me after the match because he needed me to let him in because he'd forgotten his keys.

'He flew straight back last night at 3am - and went off to train with Arsenal first thing in the morning.'

She added that she watched the game with Theo's pet dogs, Diesel, a black Alsatian, and Sanchez, a beagle cross. Mrs Walcott, a working midwife, was confident the inevitable adulation will not go to her son's head.

'He's not like that,' she said at the £2million home near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, bought by Walcott for his parents. 'He just wants to sit and analyse what he's done.

Delighted: Theo's girlfriend Melanie Slade is 'so proud' of him

'He's not one for predicting and looking into the future, it's just one day at a time.'

Mrs Walcott went out to the shops yesterday to buy a full set of national newspapers to furnish the family's scrapbooks - on the orders of her husband Donald, who served in the RAF and who now works as their son's personal manager.

Another delighted woman in Walcott's life is his 19-year-old girlfriend Melanie Slade.

She went shopping with her mother in Tesco yesterday and said later: 'I'm so proud of Theo and think he has done really well.

'He has put a lot of effort into training and I know that playing and scoring for England is something he has always wanted to do.'

The joy was shared by Walcott's grandparents.

Jamaican-born Loretta Walcott and her husband Wendell, of Carterton, near Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, said they were 'very pleased'.

Close ties: Theo with his father Don, mother Lynne and girlfrient Melanie

Wendell, in his eighties, and known to friends as Joe, was an RAF Warrant Officer and one of the first black Conservative councillors in Britain.

In Amesbury, Wiltshire, Walcott's maternal grandfather, Brian Carter, told of his irritation at not being able to watch the match live on terrestrial television.

Mr Carter, 75, a retired aircraft engineer, who lives with Theo's grandmother Naomi, said: 'I just feel national games should be viewed by the nation for free.

'The authorities should be a bit more sensitive to people like me who are retired.'

Mr Carter paid tribute to the teenage hero's father Donald. 'Theo's got a good stable family around him.

'Don is like Lewis Hamilton's dad. He's driven his son literally hundreds of thousands of miles to help him achieve his career, taking him up and down the motorway to the training academy at Southampton where he started.'

Mr Carter added that he always knew Theo had potential. 'Even at five he could run so fast I could not catch him.'

National hero: Theo shoots and scores against Croatia during their World Cup group 6 qualifying soccer match