Van der Sar accepts the blame

Edwin van der Sar has taken the blame for the opening goal in the defeat to Middlesbrough.

The Dutch international somehow let Gaizka Mendieta's long-range strike through his grasp to set up Boro for their memorable 4-1 success.

The mistake was a rare aberration by van der Sar as he has been a huge success since his summer move from Fulham.

Van der Sar has held his hands up and accepted the blame for the opening goal.

"The ball swirled a little but I should have saved it," said Van der Sar.

"That is not a good situation to start with and it all started to go wrong from that goal."

The former Ajax and Juventus custodian admitted the manner of the defeat to Middlesbrough hurt all the players and he is confident they can bounce back against Lille in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday.

"It hurts quite a lot," added van der Sar.

"It is a team game but we made a lot of individual errors and that cost us dearly.

"There is not much we can say, and I don't have to tell you what the manager was like after the game. It is quite obvious how he and the players feel.

"We are not in the greatest spirit at the moment but we have to analyse what went wrong and somehow start to focus on Wednesday's game against Lille.

"Hopefully we can pick up something from that game which we can take into the Chelsea match."