Gareth unhappy with lax ending

GARETH SouTHGATE fired a warning to his jubilant team after the 6-2 win over Iran, bringing the England players back to earth by lambasting their concentration in the closing stages of the victory.

Southgate was furious with his team’s defending as they conceded twice in the second half to take the gloss off their opening game.

Southgate warned his team can forget about winning the World Cup if that becomes a trend here in Qatar. ‘We are really pleased to have started in the way we have. Really pleased with our attacking play,’ said Southgate.

‘We know Iran are difficult to score goals against so that’s credit to our players, their movement, quality of passing, quality of finishing.

‘But I didn’t like the end of the game, to concede two goals isn’t the form we need. We are going to have to be better than we were in certain aspects of our game against the uSA because they are going to come for us full throttle and we are going to have to reset.

‘I don’t want games where we drift as this one did. It was difficult because there was so much added time in both halves. I understand the focus drifting a little but that won’t be enough for us to progress. So we have a lot to do to qualify but it’s still a really good start for us.’

Generally, Southgate (below) was happy with the start his team made: ‘With the players, we’ve talked all week about setting the right tone and intent.

That came from the way we counter-pressed and the way that we used the ball when we had it.

‘We mixed our game up, we didn’t just play in front of them. We constantly had runs in behind. So, it’s a great start for us, it’s a good platform to build on, but there are things we need to be better at if we’re going to progress into the latter stages.’