Southgate says his men have ‘just about survived’ the draw
England manager Gareth Southgate believes the power and passion of Scotland’s performance at Wembley sapped the life out of his side.
While English supporters hit out at what they felt was a distinctly underwhelming display from their side, the man in charge argues their analysis fails to give Scotland credit for what they put into the match.
“A game like Friday’s was hugely challenging for us,” he said, as he reflected on a result that has piled the pressure on for his team’s Group D fixture against the Czech Republic back in London on Tuesday night.
“There was an expectation we would play well and win the game.
“That by doing so we would be through to the next round and everything in the world is rosy. Football doesn’t work like that.
“These are unique occasions, so emotional, and I have never known England-scotland games to be anything other than that.
“And, of course, we don’t have a full stadium, and it was a probably a third full with Scottish supporters.
“For an Englandscotland game at Wembley it was a unique atmosphere.
“It is true it was a very, very, quick and frantic game, played on a skiddy surface.
“But it is the emotional energy as much as the physical energy that takes it out of you.
“And the longer it goes without a goal, the more that becomes the case.
“I’ve played in nights like that where there’s more tension and sometimes simple things become hard.
“We didn’t collapse like that, we didn’t start to look a mess with the ball, we just weren’t able to find the solutions to break Scotland down.
“Of course that’s disappointing, because we wanted people to go away with the win.
“We’d have loved to be sitting on six points tonight and having everybody pat us on the back, but we’re not.”
The Czechs are next up and Southgate has appealed for the fans who booed at the end of the Scotland match to give him stick if they want but to be supportive of the players.
“Look, I always look at myself first and in the end when you have a result like we had tonight I understand there’s going to be criticism and that’s perfectly acceptable,” he said.
“The important thing is that everyone gets behind the team and the players and they are going to need to feel that support and to feel that warmth.
“We had a young team out against Scotland and so it was a different experience than a lot of them will have ever faced before.
“They’ve just about survived it. We want to be better and that’s what we’re going to work through in the next few days before we play the Czech Republic.”