Marcus Rashford became England’s eighth black captain at the Riverside last night. How did his own fans congratulate him? They booed him.
Jadon Sancho, Tyrone Mings, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Ben Godfrey and Kalvin Phillips all started against the Romanians — they were treated with similar disdain as they took the knee.
Imagine that? Proactively heckling the players you have gone out to support?
Unfortunately, we don’t have to imagine. This disgraceful behaviour is occurring in front of our eyes in living colour.
It is all utterly depressing.
There was hope that after Gareth Southgate’s inspiring explanation of why his players would continue taking the knee, in the face of dissent at last Wednesday’s game against Austria, there wouldn’t be a repeat on Sunday.
How wrong we were — the England boss’s emotional remarks haven’t made a blind bit of difference.
‘It’s never going to stop. It’s the fans that don’t want to listen, they don’t like to change,’ said Ashley Cole on Sunday.
You fear Cole, who played 107 times from England, is spot on in his prediction.
English football still has some way to travel; the two bleak episodes in four days here in Teesside have told us that.
Credit to those who tried their hardest to drown out the jeers with applause. Yet the echo of boos was inescapable.
And, as if to hammer home the point, this deplorable section of England’s support chucked in a chorus of ‘No Surrender’ during the national anthems for good measure.
Those booing insist they aren’t racist, merely voicing dissent with the political arm of the Black Lives Matter movement.
No right-minded person buys that for a minute. Players have already made clear their actions have no alignment with politics, taking the knee is about anti-discrimination.
This is now a major problem for the FA.
Those who booed — tickets were restricted to England Supporters Club members — are likely to be at Wembley for Sunday’s Euros opener against Croatia, a game that is supposed to be a symbol of hope and excitement.
Instead, here we are — dreading how a shameless minority might resist 11 men’s fight for equality.