Gerrard hails Terry’s display and team spirit

(GSM) – Stand-in England Captain Steven Gerrard praised the team’s great performance and the character of John Terry following boos that greeted the Chelsea defender in last night’s friendly against Egypt.

Some of the supporters jeered Terry at the start of the match, but Terry managed the things very nicely which made good impact on Gerrad.

Gerrard said: “I thought he was superb, I thought he handled everything really well. He showed he’s a fantastic player and a great leader.”

Egypt went in at the break 1-0 ahead before a brace from Peter Crouch.

Shaun Wright-Phillips also hit the target as England recovered from a poor first-half performance to run out comfortable winners.

Gerrard put their recovery down to team spirit.

He said: “You’ve got to give credit to them; they played very well in the first half. We never converted chances we had. So I think we were unfortunate to come in 1-0 down.”

He was delighted about their team spirit, “But we showed good character and togetherness to get back in it and go on to win it.”

“We were a bit individual in the first half. But we pressed lot more in the second,” he said.

Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata admitted his side had tired badly after the interval – understandably given the effort involved in winning the recent African Cup of Nations.