Gareth Southgate admits Ivan Toney was ‘disgusted’ with his decision to wait until injury time before bringing in him on during England’s comeback against Slovakia at Euro 2024.
England scraped past Slovakia with a 2-1 win after Jude Bellingham scored an overhead kick in the 94th minute to force extra time before Harry Keane’s header sealed the victory for the Three Lions.
Toney, meanwhile, was handed his first minutes of the tournament as he was thrown on as a substitute in injury time with England chasing a last-gasp equaliser.
The Brentford striker then went on to provide the header to set up Kane’s winning goal, which sets up England’s quarter-final tie against Switzerland on July 6.
‘It’s strange but I never felt tonight would be the end of our tournament,’ Southgate said after the game.
‘Even with the long throw you felt there’s hope, we can cause some chaos and something might drop, I didn’t think the finish [from Bellingham] would be quite as it was.
‘There’s no question, I think Ivan Toney was pretty disgusted that I put him on with a minute to go.
‘I think we’ve made up now but he’s had a big impact, in the second goal as well.’
Asked if he thought Toney was unhappy because he should have been brought on earlier, Southgate replied: ‘Yeah, you put a sub on at that time and it’s the last throw of the dice and maybe he doesn’t even touch the ball.
‘I completely understand it, I don’t like putting a player in that position but I just had a feel he might be able to cause the chaos that happened.’
Southgate then added in his post-match press conference: ‘I could just tell from his face what he was thinking and I could understand it.
‘I was putting him on with a minute to go, any player is going to think, ‘well, I’ve been sat for the tournament and you’ve not used me’.
‘What I said to him was, ‘I know this isn’t a good time and this isn’t how you’d like it but there could be one moment’.
‘I think his presence would’ve unsettled them [Slovakia] a bit, and a very clever bit of play for the second goal, I think he’s just about forgiven me now.’
ENGLAND’S ROUTE TO Euro 2024 FINAL
QUARTER FINAL – July 6 at 5pm
England vs Switzerland
SEMI FINAL – July 10 at 8pm
England vs Romania, Netherlands, Austria or Turkey
FINAL – July 14 at 8pm
England vs Germany, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, France or Belgium
Meanwhile, Toney insisted he had to stay prepared after failing to feature for England during the group stage.