England duo hit back at the fans

9:11am Monday 13th October 2008

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RIO Ferdinand and Frank Lampard joined forces to criticise the England supporters who booed Ashley Cole following the Chelsea defender’s second-half howler in the 5-1 win over Kazakhstan.

Cole’s aimless 68th-minute punt went straight across the face of his own 18-yard box, enabling Kazakh midfielder Zhambyl Kukeyev to score his side’s first international goal against England.

The error counted for little in the final reckoning, with England running out comfortable winners courtesy of second-half goals from Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney (2) and Jermain Defoe, and an own goal from Kazakh defender Alexandr Kuchma.

But Cole was loudly booed for five or six minutes after his mistake, and the jeers subsided only when the hosts scored three goals in the final quarter-of-an-hour.

Lampard is no stranger to Wembley jeers, as he has been booed on a number of occasions in the past, most recently when he was substituted in August’s 2-2 draw with Czech Republic.

And the Chelsea midfielder feels Saturday’s crowd were too quick to criticise his teammate for one uncharacteristic error.

“I get fed up talking about booing,” said Lampard, who was England’s most influential midfielder on Saturday night. “But that was the one big negative in the game.

Everyone can make one mistake and that’s all that happened.

“Ashley is one of the best left-backs in the world. We want the crowd getting behind the team, so we have to concentrate on the good things.

“If we want to make Wembley a fortress, we have to get the fans behind us. When they are, there is no better set of fans around.”

While Cole’s defensive howler proved the catalyst for a sustained spell of abuse, the full-back was not simply paying the price for one misplaced back-pass.

To a significant section of England supporters, Cole is characteristic of the ‘bling’ culture that has invaded the national squad, with players perceived to be more interested in money and their club career than the pride of representing their country.

Rio Ferdinand has been tarred with the same brush before, but after skippering England for the second time at the weekend, the Manchester United centre-half claimed supporters who booed their own players should be “ashamed” of their actions.

“Hopefully, the people who booed Ashley will go home and reflect on it and feel a bit ashamed of themselves,” said Ferdinand.

“It’s disappointing. When any player makes a mistake all you want to do is get behind him and make sure his next touch sees him get it off his back so he gets back into the game.

“It does not help when the fans are booing one of your own players. I thought the fans had been very good to us up to then. They were very positive and made themselves heard, but then that happened.

“Obviously players make mistakes – we’re only human – and some people showed a little bit of ignorance and immaturity.

I know it is our job to keep fans happy by playing a winning game, but what happened was a pity.”

Ferdinand was captain in place of the injured John Terry, but the Chelsea centrehalf is expected to return for Wednesday night’s tricky game in Belarus. Terry successfully came through a light training session yesterday, and should travel to Minsk with the rest of the England squad this evening.

Saturday’s other Group Six game saw Ukraine and Croatia play out a goalless draw in Kiev, and with Ukraine not in action on Wednesday, a victory in Belarus would leave England five points clear ahead of a four-and-a-half-month break in the qualifying programme.

“I hope John will be okay,”

said boss Fabio Capello. “We will make a final decision after we have seen how he has trained.

“Belarus are a good team and they will be difficult to play against.

“I saw them play against Ukraine (in a game they lost 1- 0) and they were dangerous.

They are a good, well-organised team and it will be a difficult test.”