Gareth Southgate ‘hurt’ by England fans booing and taunting him after 4-0 hammering by Hungary

England fans turned on Gareth Southgate and his players after they suffered humiliation against Hungary and their worst home defeat since 1928.

Southgate was taunted with chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ and ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ as England collapsed to a thumping 4-0 defeat at Molineux.

The record-breaking hammering – the first time ever England had lost a home match by four or more goals without scoring – rounded off an international break to forget for the Three Lions which has left Southgate seriously feeling the heat.

Some England supporters turned on the country’s most successful manager in decades

England have failed to win any of their four Nations League games, lost both matches against Hungary and the only goal they scored was a Harry Kane penalty.

Southgate said: ‘In the end this is about winning matches with England, tonight was the sort of night a lot of my predecessors have experienced. I’m not going to stand and say it doesn’t hurt but it’s clear to me what we tried to do across these four matches, the two Nations League games have heaped negativity and pressure onto us and don’t normally have that with an England manager. 

‘The players have never stopped, results are my responsibility. I understand tonight is a chastening experience. This group of players have been unbelievable for their country. It’s important people stick with them as they’ll be strong moving forward.’

Southgate admitted the heavy defeat at Molineux was a chastening experience 

Southgate made nine changes to his starting XI, made further attacking switches as he chased the game and held his hands up for what followed.

But he also warned that the less-experienced players given opportunities in the last 10 days had blown their opportunity to impress him.

He said: ‘We picked a young team with energy and when the game started to go against them it started to look that way. That’s my responsibility at the end.

England suffered their heaviest defeat at home since 1928 in a 4-0 thumping 

‘I thought we made changes that gave us an attacking impetus. But then we were more open as well and in the end we had so many attacking players we left ourselves wide open. I’ve just said to the players across the four matches that’s my responsibility.

‘In the teams selected they haven’t been strong enough into the two Hungary games. I’ve given them [England’s players] too much to do tonight. I think in the other two games the results have been more positive than the reaction to it.

‘We’ve seen we have to be at full strength and it was an important experience for lots of young players over these games.’

Captain Harry Kane insisted under-fire Southgate retained his full confidence. He said: ‘Without any question it’s not a question I should be answering.’

Harry Kane thinks it is important not to overreact and the mission remains the same 

Kane added: ‘It’s our first big defeat in a long time. Our defence has been the structure of our success the last four or five years. We have to take it on the chin, move forward, preparing for a big World Cup and that’s the most important thing.

‘Let’s not forget where we came from. First final in what 60 years. I understand their frustration we want to win every time in a England shirt. All we know is we’ll keep working and try to have a successful World Cup.

‘It’s a disappointing night. This camp we haven’t quite had the cutting edge. Second half it’s unacceptable when we go 2-0 down to concede the way we did. But we haven’t had a camp like it for a long time, it’s no time to panic, keep our heads up, look forward to the break and come back stronger in September.’