WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BOO ASHLEY COLE, SAY FANS

“We have the right to give the manager and players some stick when they do something wrong.

“There are fans in the stands who would cut off a finger to play for England and when they see somebody playing badly it matters to them.

“The fans who are going to Belarus this week will probably lose three days’ work and spend around £400. Those of us who will go to Kazakhstan next year will probably have to spend our summer holiday there.

“So why shouldn’t the people who spend so much time and money on supporting England be able to criticise if they want to?

“Ashley Cole made a serious mistake and I’m sure Fabio Capello was furious with him. There were fans who were angry as well and they decided to show that. I get annoyed when I hear players saying, ‘I don’t understand why the fans boo’.

“Of course they don’t understand because most of them have been signed by clubs since the age of eight or nine and have been looked after all of their lives. They have not spent half their wages on travelling around the world to watch their country play football. They haven’t organised travel around Europe and done long and uncomfortable bus journeys.

“It would be so helpful if the players came to see some of the supporters’ clubs just to find out the lengths some of us go to and how much it costs us.” Apart from the booing, the general atmosphere at the new Wembley has come in for criticism. But Perryman believes the home fans put in a good performance.

“The atmosphere was probably as good as it has ever been at the new Wembley,” he said. “There were no Mexican waves and we didn’t have thousands of people leaving early.”

The FA though, while delighted at the support received from most of a capacity 90,000 crowd, felt let down by those who attacked Cole.

“It is crazy that a section of our own supporters are booing one of our own players,” said director of communications Adrian Bevington. “That is clearly not going to help the team and certainly not the individual being booed.”