We don't want to lose another England boss

13 April 2012

It has been an interesting few days on and off the pitch, to say the least, and everyone here was just glad we came back home with three points under our belt - something we've not managed to do in recent qualifying campaigns.

Obviously the preparation for the Group Seven tie against Slovakia came amid all the furore surrounding the coach's private life so let's deal with that issue first.

It's been impossible to ignore what has gone on but I have to say I have absolutely no interest in Mr Eriksson's private life. He should be judged by what he achieves as England coach, not what he does outside it and I believe the other players have the same opinion.

We lost one England coach because of what happened away from the field of play and we don't want it to happen again.

We have to be realistic though and I know, in the culture and country in which we live, the pressure would surely have mounted on him had we not achieved the right result. Fortunately, we did and let's hope these next few days building up to the match against Macedonia will be a little less eventful.

The other incident which dominated the build-up to the big match in Bratislava was the shooting of the two England supporters. I saw the whole thing unfold because I was in the room being used by the masseurs, which overlooked the square in front of our hotel.

The windows were open and I could hear a group of England fans singing. Suddenly there was the sound of broken glass followed by what sounded like some firecrackers going off.

We ran to the window to see what was happening and the next thing was we saw one chap with blood on his clothes being helped towards our hotel by a couple of his mates. Things settled down pretty swiftly after that but it wasn't easy getting to sleep that night.

The match itself was tough. We knew that 24 hours earlier when we saw the pitch. We knew then it was going to be like an FA Cup tie with the potential for an upset and that's how it proved.

We then made a conscious decision not to take chances. We knew it was going to be impossible to play our normal game and we were certainly right there as well. At half-time I have to admit it didn't look good but I thought the team showed a fair bit of spirit because we realised that we all had to battle and that it wasn't a night when individual reputations were going to be enhanced.

Turkey, our main rivals in the group, have to go to Bratislava next June. The pitch is likely to be a lot drier then but not a whole lot better. I would like to think that Slovakia will be as enthusiastic about that match as the one against us.

The crowd were enthusiastic and made a lot of noise but they really let themselves down with the racist abuse. It was simply disgusting and I hope they are punished for it because that has no part in modernday football.

I was shocked by the sheer volume of the abuse. I have played in an atmosphere like that before and there are still isolated incidents in this country, but nowhere near on the same scale.

The pleasing thing was that it was completely counter-productive because it only succeeded in raising Emile Heskey's game.

My Middlesbrough team-mate, Szilard Nemeth, played well for Slovakia and scored their goal. He also managed to nutmeg in the second half as I am sure he will be reminding me later this week!

He even tried to engage me in conversation in the first half. He's a lovely lad and I think he just wanted a chat about how the game was going, but I wasn't in the mood to stop and talk at the time because we were losing.

The Slovakian adventure was a real experience for some of the lads. They won't have endured quite that kind of atmosphere before.

We got the job done, though, and it could have been worse. Now we have to look forward to Wednesday's match against Macedonia. The weather seems just as bad over here since we returned but at least the pitch at Southampton will be better.

We have to make sure all the hard work hasn't been for nothing by following it up with another victory.

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Emile Heskey

Middlesbrough FC

Slovakia

We don't want to lose another England boss

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