FA backs under-fire McClaren

The Football Association urged England fans Thursday to lay off beleaguered coach Steve McClaren.

FA chief executive Brian Barwick said fans had every right to be frustrated after England's unconvincing 3-0 European Championship qualifying win over Andorra on Wednesday, which came four days after a dour 0-0 draw against Israel.
"I do, however, feel that there is a line to draw between acceptable criticism and personal vilification and abuse," Barwick said in a statement. "One's fair, the other isn't."
Fans chanted "What a load of rubbish" and "You're not fit to wear the shirt" during Wednesday's game in Barcelona. They showered McClaren with abuse as he walked off the field after the scoreless first half. Even after the win, they shouted "Still want McClaren out."
"This past week has shown just how the fortunes of the England team get people's emotions fired up," Barwick said. "England matters and we wouldn't want - or expect - it any other way.
"Everyone has the right to give their opinion - that's the beauty of the game - and the England fans, the most dedicated group of supporters in the world, are entitled to air theirs."
McClaren stormed out of a news conference after the Andorra game after just two questions.
"Gentlemen, if you want to write whatever you want to write, you can write it because that is all I am going to say," he said. "Thank you."
The former Middlesbrough manager - who replaced Sven-Goran Eriksson after the World Cup - has been lampooned and mocked by Britain's media.
"I know how hard Steve and everyone connected to the team is working," Barwick said. "He's a strong man and I know from speaking with him just how determined he is to deliver success for England."
After England failed to score in the first half against a part-time side ranked 163rd in the world, Steven Gerrard scored twice and Kevin Nugent once to save McClaren's job - for the time being.
"The first half was one of the most difficult 45 minutes I've ever experienced in an England shirt," Gerrard said.
But the anti-McClaren campaign hasn't died down. British bookmakers on Thursday offered 11-8 odds that McClaren will no longer be coach by the end of the qualifying period for the 2008 championship.
His assistant, Terry Venables, and Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill are joint favorites to replace McClaren at 5-1.
"Nothing could dispel the memory of the most shapeless, dispiriting, depressing evening English football has endured for decades, a night of near-disaster that was utterly unacceptable," The Mirror newspaper said Thursday.

Captain John Terry pleaded with fans to support the team and McClaren.
"We take full responsibility and it's just not fair to hear some of those chants, especially during the game," Terry said. "Every single one of us took it in - and it wasn't nice."
Wayne Rooney hasn't scored in a competitive England match since the 2004 European Championship - 16 games ago. He will miss England's next match against Estonia on June 6 after picking up a yellow card against Andorra.
Attacking midfielder Frank Lampard missed the game with a wrist injury amid rumors he had been dropped because his style of play did not get the best out of Gerrard.
England is in danger of missing out on a major soccer tournament for the first time since 1994. Croatia leads Group E with 13 points, while England, Israel and Russia all have 11. Croatia and Russia have played a game less than England.
In its previous three games, England drew 0-0 at Israel, lost 2-0 to Croatia and drew 0-0 with Macedonia.
"McClaren's resources include a handful of top-class players, but there is something rotten in the national team, something that goes far deeper than the Gerrard versus Frank Lampard debate, or the age-old left-sided problem," The Times wrote. "Maybe it has more to do with the psyche of English footballers and an environment in which underachievement, for whatever reason, appears endemic."