Cole braced for a bigger backlash

IF England’s chastened superstars still harboured any illusions as to the scale of the nation’s anger at their recent woes, this bile-soaked evening at Pride Park would have put them right.

Chelsea’s England contingent were jeered from start to finish in the east midlands, and not even a sick-note from last week’s Euro 2008 qualifying defeat to Croatia was enough to spare them from criticism.

Ashley Cole missed that game but suffered just as much as his team-mates John Terry, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Phillips. His consolation was helping Chelsea extend their unbeaten sequence under Avram Grant to 12 games and move within five points of Cole’s old club and leaders Arsenal.