Owen determined to shake off defeat
Michael Owen is desperate to put the pain of England’s 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland behind and said: “I don’t want this feeling again.”
The Newcastle striker’s first competitive outing of the 2005-06 campaign was deeply disappointing for the player and the rest of the side as David Healy’s goal sealed a memorable win for the home side in Belfast.
England need two wins from their home qualifiers against Austria and Poland next month to top World Cup qualifying Group Six, and Owen insists he and his team-mates resolved last night to put right the wrongs of Windsor Park.
“Often the biggest test is when the chips are down and you’ve got to stick together. That’s how we felt after the game,” Owen said.
“We feel the hurt collectively and we all said we don’t want this feeling again. Hopefully we will get the chance to put it right in the last two qualifiers. It’s still in our hands to win the group. Hopefully that will make up for last night.”
Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was savaged in the media for the defeat, but Owen was adamant the blame should be shared by everyone connected to the team last night.
The 25-year-old, who had two of England’s better chances in the first half at Windsor Park but failed to take either one, said: “The manager, the players and the staff are all in it together.
“If the manager gets stick it’s due in no small part to the players. We were out there playing and we didn’t perform well enough.
“We played well for the first half an hour but then seemed to get worse and worse. But we take collective responsibility for the performance and now we have to show collective togetherness, stick tight and put it right in the next two games.”
Owen completed pre-season with Real Madrid but the match in Belfast represented his first competitive game of the new season, following the battle to wrap up his signature before the closure of the transfer window at the end of August.
“It was good to get back playing competitive football, but not in that manner,” Owen admitted.
“It was a disappointing result but at least I’m playing, fit and looking forward to Saturday’s game (his expected debut against Fulham).
“That’s the beauty of football, especially in England – the games come thick and fast. We (Newcastle) could do with taking three points, before we came out Alan (Shearer) was mentioning the injuries we’ve got for Saturday’s game.
“But we will have passionate fans behind us and we are looking for our first three points of the season.”
Owen insisted no-one should ever have expected a comfortable win for England but refused to defend what had been a “poor performance”.
“Football has changed a lot. It’s not a case of going to Northern Ireland and win 5-0. You’re winning 1-0, 2-0,” he added.
“There aren’t the easy matches out there. Greece won the (European) championships, Porto won the Champions League. In saying that, that’s no excuse for not getting a result.”
Asked what he felt had gone wrong last night, Owen said: “So many different things.
“After half an hour to think we were so in control of the game it normally takes a goal against or a sending-off to rattle your cage and for us to play so badly after that.
“Nothing happened though, and we just started playing not so well, not so well, and so on. We should have been pressing for the equaliser but they had as many chances as us in the last five minutes. It was a poor performance and it wasn’t good enough.
“You question yourself, you question everyone. You think different thoughts and come to different conclusions whenever you think about the game.
“It was an unbelievable match and you’d like to think it couldn’t or wouldn’t happen again if you played them another dozen times. But you just don’t know in football.”
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