Ward-Prowse embraces dark side
JAMES Ward-Prowse believes England can benefit from embracing the “darker side” of the game – although the midfielder insists he was killing time rather than meddling with the penalty spot in Iceland.
Three and a half years after making his debut, the 25-yearold made his first England start in Saturday’s unconvincing 1-0 Nations League win in Reykjavik, where Gareth
Southgate’s men victory.
Joe Gomez gave away a late spot-kick moments after Raheem Sterling scored one at the other end, with England breathing a collective sigh of relief when Birkir Bjarnason blazed over.
Replays appeared to show Ward-Prowse scuffing the penalty spot before it was taken and former Manchester United skipper Roy Keane said he was “cheating”, but the Southampton captain denied doing that. almost blew
“It wasn’t any digging of the spot, it was more just delaying the penalty,” he said. “It was a bit of a mad few minutes for everybody.
“We’d just obviously scored what we thought was the winning goal and then we faced the penalty, so it was more of a delaying tactic just for everyone to get their heads together and prepare for the penalty. Thankfully it went in our favour.”
But even if Ward-Prowse did not tamper with the spot, slowing down the match at such a crucial juncture shows the kind of streetwise nature so often lacking in England teams of years gone by.
“It’s something that we certainly at club level have employed,” he added.
“We maybe had he reputation of being a bit too nice and we’ve had to show a bit more aggression and a bit of that darker side in order to help us win games. I think it’s just something that I have learned along the way.