LONDON-Football Supporters’ Federation international co-ordinator Kevin Miles insists only a minority of England fans booed Ashley Cole. Cole’s inexplicable blunder led to Kazakhstan’s surprise goal in the home side’s 5-1 World Cup qualifying win.
Although Fabio Capello had called for the England fans to get behind their team, an element of the 90,000 sell-out crowd reacted immediately and jeered Cole every time he touched the ball.
Stand-in captain Rio Ferdinand, like Capello, was critical of the fans who got on Cole’s back.
But Miles, FSF council member and international co-ordinator, was at Wembley and told said the booing was not widespread.
“I hardly heard it, though I was aware of it. It seemed to be a minority,” he said.
“I can only speak personally. There are two sides to it; people have obviously paid their money and have every right to express their opinion.
“However, I personally believe once the team have gone out there and are playing, fans should do what they can to try to improve or support what they are trying to do.
“And I can’t imagine a situation in which a player being booed every time he touches the ball, no matter what mistake he’s made before then, is going to feel more confident or lifted by the experience.
“Clearly Ashley Cole made a mistake for their goal but having said that he’s still got to carry on playing the rest of the game and we wanted to move forward from that rather than compound it, so I can’t see how it helps.”
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson admits he felt for the Arsenal left-back and is concerned about the increasing trend of fans venting their spleen.
“It’s a sad situation,” he told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.
“It’s never occurred in the past and we have to be careful not to glorify the past but it’s a bit sad, because players playing for England don’t make mistakes deliberately and nobody will have been more upset yesterday than Ashley Cole himself.
“It was very harsh and I don’t quite know where that has crept into the English game.”
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