Lee Carsley sings praises of his England players, if not the anthem

England interim manager Lee Carsley deflected all praise to his players for their fluid passing performance in his first game in charge, describing the comfortable 2-0 win over Ireland as the proudest day of his football career.

Carsley, who had been managing England's Under-21s since 2021, and led them to the European title last year, will oversee two games this month with a view to staying on through the autumn as England search for a full-time successor to Gareth Southgate.

Asked if England's forward-thinking display - albeit against a team ranked 54 places below them - was the mark of 'Cars-ball', the former Everton midfielder said this was certainly not the case after just four training sessions together.

"It's definitely not that, it's the players. I'm just lucky that at the minute I'm coaching them," the former Ireland international, who accidentally walked into the wrong dugout at the start of the game, told a press conference.

"The players have got to take a lot of credit the way they took on some of the things we spoke about, moving the ball forward quickly, running forward, trying to get in pockets, I thought they did really well."

However a large portion of the post-match press conference was taken up by questions about the reaction to him not singing the national anthem.

The former midfielder said on the eve of the Group B2 clash that he had never sung a national anthem as Republic player or England coach and would stick with that stance when the countries met on Saturday.

Asked about the reaction to his comments following Saturday’s win in Dublin, interim boss Carsley said: "It has definitely not affected my day or preparation.

"I found out about it this morning. I fully respect people’s opinions. It’s something