He didn’t have an invitation, but was talking about the match and managed to weave his through the stadium’s huge network of tunnels and corridors to reach the stadium in order to show his solidarity to the former Aston Villa team-mate who had been through one of the worst situations that a footballer could face. Gareth Southgate penalty miss, After a successful entrance, Townsend waited with Alison and Gareth Southgate’s wife. They didn’t really know what they should say to each other and what they’d say to the distraught England centre-back as he walked from the exit.
Then all of the sudden, he appeared, moving towards them. And Townsend was ready to tell them, “Don’t worry – better than you have missed ’em” when Liam Gallagher appeared, as like he appeared out of thin air. It is evident that being among the most well-known rock stars in the world and this was 1996 when Oasis at the peak of their popularity can open doors to special places, and here was the singer’s leader talking to a defender who just an hour ago had became the nation’s most notorious player for not converting an opportunity to penalize Germany to defeat England from the final of the home European Championship.
Never lost for the words. Gallagher declared, “Don’t f**king worry about it because at least you had the bollocks to go up and take it, those other f**kers, they didn’t want to f**king know.”
It was a logical evaluation from a frontman who’s group’s hit song Don’t Look Back In Anger was a hit for four weeks at No . 1 just three months prior. At that point, Townsend had a plan for what he wanted to say. “Actually, in as many words mate, that’s what I was gonna tell ya,” Townsend said. “What he said is spot on.” “I never felt anger,” Southgate stated in the years following. “I just felt regret, remorse, responsibility. A little bit of that is still in me. To be unable to perform under the spotlight of a huge audience is difficult professionally.”
Southgate felt that he was personally accountable for the end of the good vibe that the nation was riding through the hot summer in the year 1996. After returning to the dressing room – a temporary refuge that protected him from the public anger that was to follow Southgate Southgate felt at first, an emotion that would remain in his mind for a long time He felt he failed everyone. His team, his teammates as well as his country. Everyone had their own opinion. Even his mother, Barbara, who said “Why didn’t you just belt it?” when she called him later.
On the team bus which carried those players who had come on their way from Wembley and back Burnham Beeches Hotel, in Buckinghamshire, Southgate sat despondent. The following evening, he shared meals together with Stuart Pearce and the left-back who was infamously omitted an injury-related penalty in the final game of the tournament against Germany in the same round of Italia 1990. He also informed him of what the coming few months would be like and gave him advice that Southgate could find valuable.
