McClaren: I won't be driven out by hate mob

14 April 2012

Defiant England coach Steve McClaren last night reacted to the abuse heaped on him by fans in Barcelona by declaring: "I won't let the hate mob drive me out of a job. I won't let them grind me down."

McClaren's reaction to the vitriol he and his visibly shaken players suffered during England's 3-0 European Championship victory over Andorra, a team ranked 157 places below them in the world, is to come out fighting.

Scroll down to read more:

Resilient: Steve McClaren has come under huge pressure after failing to deliver a successful England team

The £2.5 million-a-year head coach insisted: "They will have to drag me kicking and screaming out of Soho Square because I've got a job to do with England and I'm not leaving until I've done it."

McClaren believes that his team's three-goal secondhalf performance in Barcelona's Olympic Stadium will be From Back Page the turning point in their bid to qualify for next summer's European Championship finals. "I really feel that," he said.

"Perhaps the criticism needed to bottom out, to get so bad that it united everybody in one cause."

He praised the character and conviction of his team. "The courage and backbone they showed in dealing with that kind of hostility, the way they remained strong and got the job done, speaks volumes for their character," he said.

"I told them at half-time that if things went wrong then it would be me who would take the stick. I told them I could handle it, so they should go out, forget the abuse and do their best to win the game. The second-half performance showed what courage there is among the players and what can be achieved when they pull together.

"There was a feeling of anger at half-time, but unity, too. It was so strong I wish I could have bottled that emotion. I wish we were playing again next week so we would tap into that and the fantastic mood of the boys at the moment. I'm so proud of the players that it is difficult to put it into words. It was the same feeling when we won the European Cup with Manchester United or when Middlesbrough won the Carling Cup. I looked around the dressing-room and thought, 'Christ, you'll do for me'."

The coach added that a text message from Steven Gerrard the day after the game, praising the team's spirit, had given him real hope for the campaign'.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in