Peter Crouch has called on England fans to lay off Scott Carson, after the keeper's error against Croatia.
Keeper offered support after Wembley howler
Peter Crouch has called on England fans to lay off Scott Carson, following the rookie keeper's error against Croatia.
Making his first competitive international appearance, Carson made a hash of Niko Kranjcar's early shot to gift Croatia a the lead in England's 3-2 defeat.
He looked shaky for the remainder of the first half at Wembley before responding with two smart saves in the second period.
Crouch, who drew England level before Mladen Petric's winner, has offered his support to Carson and feels the keeper has a long-term future with the national team.
Fantastic keeper
"Scott is a fantastic keeper and also a young keeper and, although he will be disappointed with Wednesday, I've trained and played with him every day and I know just how good he is," said the Liverpool striker of his club colleague, who is currently on loan at Aston Villa.
"I am sure he will be an England No.1 in a few years to come.
"Hopefully people don't get on his back too much. I wouldn't wish fans turning on him. He is a great lad and a fantastic keeper.
"It wasn't just him. Over the course of the qualifying campaign, there have been mistakes and we have to look at ourselves as a team as a whole."
Crouch is preparing for an inquest into why England failed to make the most of a second chance to qualify after Russia's weekend slip-up against Israel.
Painful
He added: "Have England not been good enough in this campaign? You'd have to say so if only because of the fact that we haven't qualified and that is the biggest disappointment.
"Once we get Wednesday out of the system I think we can look at where we went wrong in the other games as well, but at the moment what happened Wednesday feels the most painful.
"It is the most disappointing day of my career. I've not had too many disappointments. At least with losing the Champions League final, at least we've got there.
"The fact we expected to qualify and we haven't done is the most disappointing thing."
