Paul Robinson insisted there was nothing he could do to prevent Croatia's comical goal.
England goalkeeper Paul Robinson insisted there was nothing he could do to prevent Croatia's comical second goal in Zagreb.The Tottenham custodian was embarrassed when Gary Neville's back-pass bobbled over his boot just as he was going to kick the ball as Slaven Bilic's side took an unassailable lead on 69 minutes.
It was a desperately unfortunate incident on a night when Robinson made a number of saves for The Three Lions, and the Spurs star was philosophical when reflecting on the incident following the final whistle.
"It's one of those things - there was nothing I could do," Robinson told Sky Sports.
"I think the ball bobbled where their goalkeeper took his goal-kicks in the first half.
"You don't expect things like that to happen. I'd gone to kick the ball as usual and it wasn't there.
"But I can take positives from the game rather than just look at that."
The keeper also admitted that England offered little in an attacking sense as their new 3-5-2 formation failed to pay dividends on a night when Robinson's run of six clean sheets for his country was brought to an end.
"I don't think anything went for us," added Robinson.
"We controlled the game in the first half without causing much of a threat - we exploited them in wide areas in the first half.
"But we didn't offer much tonight, we didn't cause them too much trouble and were not much of an attacking force.
"But it (the defeat) is not going to damage us. There's a long way to go in this group."
Three Lions skipper John Terry conceded he was 'lost for words' after Croatia's comprehensive victory, although the Chelsea man attempted to deflect the blame from McClaren and his tactical tinkering by claiming that all England's players were fully prepared to line up in a 3-5-2 formation.
"I'm lost for words actually, the lads are devastated and inside we can't believe that we have come here and they have beaten us like they have done," said Terry.
"We worked on the formation for nine or 10 days solid and the manager asked if we were comfortable with it.
"No-one had a problem with it - we all played with it and we said we were comfortable with it in the week.
"We take the loss as a team. It's no-one's fault - especially not the manager's. There are no regrets.
"Tonight Croatia came at us and we expected them to sit back and keep the ball but their wing-backs pressed on and forced us deeper and deeper.
"We came in after the first half quite disappointed we weren't a goal up, we thought we were doing okay.
"We said coming here after only getting a point at the weekend it was imperative to come here and get a win.
"We haven't and we've put ourselves in a difficult position, but we can't wait to go again."
