England stay calm

England were racially abused by Serbia's fans and - allegedly - their players, who also tried to assault and are understood to have spat at Matt Derbyshire during and after the game.

But boss Stuart Pearce wants to forget about the controversy and focus on the positives - joining the Serbs in the knock-out stages of the tournament.

"As a group of people I believe we are above that," he told SkySports after the win. "We've got out of the group; we've won 2-0.

"I as a coach like to feel that the incident has been put to bed. We're in a semi final and we have to concentrate on that."

Pearce, however, said that was unaware of the racist chanting - which appeared to have been targeted at Nigerian-born Nedum Onuoha in particular.

"I didn't hear it myself, but obviously the people on our bench heard it," he continued.

"It is very, very disappointing. We're there as a collective - the players through to the staff - we've won a game, we're pleased to have won a game, let the FA deal with it."

Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone was also sent off for England in injury-time after dissent aimed at the assistant referee, a decision Pearce thinks was harsh but will not complain about.

"Swearing, I believe, I think he swore at one of the officials," Pearce said before joking that "if every player who swore at an official in this tournament was sent off then we'd have very few left.

"We're disappointed with it and Tom will learn."

Reading striker Leroy Lita - who scored England's first goal - confirmed that there was an incident in the tunnel involving racial comments aimed at Hoyte.

"A few words were said to Justin that were a bit harsh but we can't worry about things like that," he told SkySports.

"It's a bit unfortunate that Justin got a bit of stick, but we have to move on. It wasn't serious, just words, but I think our lads dealt very well."

Congolese-born Lita, however, confirmed that the comments aimed at Hoyte - who is black - had a racist tone, and that Derbyshire was spat at.

"Justin wasn't very happy," he added.

Nedium Onuoha - who was comforted by England's bench at half-time - confirmed that he had been the target of Serbia's supporters when they made bigoted chants during the first half.

"I was aware of it, but I just ignored it and will let UEFA deal with it," the Nigerian-born Manchester City star said.

"I thought the world was a changing place."

On the payers' reaction to Derbyshire's goal, he was more philosophical:

"I can understand that they were upset, but it was their keeper who kicked the ball first after the player went down, and then it's up to the ref to decide.

"I wasn't really thinking about it to be honest, just enjoying that it went in."

- REDA MAHER -