Heskey on Croatian abuse

Last updated : 22 September 2008 By Paul Farrington
In an interview with the Sunday Times this weekend, Heskey spoke about the hurt caused by such abuse but how it will never affect his game.

The 30 year old striker played an integral part in the victory and earned many plaudits for his performance.

Heskey said: "When I made a challenge, which I got booked for, it felt like the whole stand behind the goal we were attacking in the second half was doing it.

"When we kicked off again with the free kick it stopped, but for 10 or 20 seconds you could hear it, and it was horrible.

"We've had it before, in Spain and Slovakia, and if you think about it, you probably get it in places where they don't have many black players, or even black people, in the community. Not like England, which is multicultural.

"Over there, they are a long way behind us in that respect, and it's down to ignorance. At first I thought, 'What the hell is this?' But as soon as we kicked off again it went out of my head.

"When I was younger, I'd have been angrier, but the more you come across it, the more you're left thinking, 'What can you do?' It's up to the authorities to take action. We've reported it, so let's see what happens."