Rose: ‘They have to be banned’

Danny Rose has today revealed that Serbian ‘fans’ threw stones at his head & continually made monkey gestures when he was on the ball during last night’s 1-0 for England’s U21’s.

The Tottenham Hotspur defender – on-loan at Sunderland – was subsequently sent-off after the final whistle for a second bookable offence after kicking the ball into the crowd in frustration.

Serbian staff and players showed themselves up as well as England boss Stuart Pearce commented on ‘kicks and butts’ aimed at his players and staff as chaos ensued at full-time.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Rose said of the highly-disturbing scenes:

‘The monkey chants started when we went out for the warm-up.

‘I asked the lads if they could hear it and they said they could. I went to see ‘Wigs’ [Steve Wigley] and I told him what was happening and he just said ‘try your best to get through it’ and people would deal with it after the game.’

That of course, was by no means the end of the abuse England’s black players received.

‘Two stones hit me in the head when I went to get the ball for a throw-in and whenever I touched the ball there was monkey chanting,’ admitted Rose.

‘After 60 minutes my mind wasn’t really on the game, I was just so angry. It was just so hard to concentrate and I could have cost the lads the game because I made a few mistakes through not concentrating.’

Rose is far from alone in calling for Serbia to be banned following what is the latest in a long line of indiscretions aimed at England’s black players at away matches.

Sunderland legend Gary Bennett has joined the calls for Serbia to be banned from competitions following last night’s abuse:

“It`s absolutely pointless fining the Serb FA. No matter how big the fine might be, it`ll get paid,’ Bennett conceded.

“The punishment has to be something that will hurt them, and in terms of that you have to be looking at banning the country from competitions to make an example of that,’ Bennett told The Jarrow & Hebburn Gazette