Skipper John Terry has refused to put England's defeat against Ukraine down to the flare attack in Dnipro.
But Three Lions skipper questions 'bizarre' refereeing
Skipper John Terry has refused to put England's defeat against Ukraine down to the flare attack in Dnipro.
The Three Lions' 100 per cent World Cup qualifying record came to a disappointing end on Saturday after Serhiy Nazarenko's strike handed his side a life-line in their bid to reach the South Africa finals.
But the match was shrouded in controversy, first when a flurry of flares were thrown from the home supporters which covered Robert Green's penalty area in the opening minutes before the goalkeeper was red-carded.
Green's replacement David James then received similar treatment in the first-half following Andrey Shevchenko's penalty miss and the Football Association confirmed they will be making an official complaint to FIFA regarding the two incidents.
But Terry insists the ugly moments did not affect the players' performances in the opening period.
No danger
"We did not feel at all in danger because of the flares," the England captain said.
"We were disappointed in the first half and we can't blame the flares on this and the other.
"There have been certain games in this group where we have had to tackle situations and we have got through them.
"We can't look at the flares as an excuse. In the opening half, we were not at our best."
Terry was more concerned with the bizarre situation in which referee Damir Skomina appeared to send off Rio Ferdinand - and then changed his mind and gave Green a red card for bringing down Artem Milevskyi.
Referee concern
The Chelsea captain said: "I saw something different to the referee. He wanted to send Rio off which is bizarre and he was closer than me as well.
"I think the fourth official intervened but after the game, the referee said he was going to send Robert Green off and not Rio which is even more bizarre.
"Hold your hands up if you have made a mistake."
Terry feels England can take positives from the game despite the defeat.
He added: "To go down to ten men after so little time made it very difficult but in the second half we gave it a right go and there were some positives to come out of the second 45 minutes."
Substitute shot-stopper James insists he was ready to come on following Green's dismissal after famously revealing he was not prepared in England's 4-1 reverse to Denmark back in 2005.
"I was fortunate I did my warm-up properly as in the past I've been guilty of not," the Portsmouth man told
Sky Sports News.
"My preparation was right and it's a shame the way the goal went in because it was possibly going wide before Ash (Cole) intervened with a deflection but overall I think there was some good stuff by us.
"For the 75 minutes that we played with 10 men I think was a tremendous effort."
