Michael Owen last night led the backlash over Roy Keane's claims that England's players "bottled" it at the World Cup.
Keane accused Sven Goran Eriksson's players of being "overawed" by Brazil in their quarter-final clash and claimed they were more interested in swapping shirts than winning the game. But Owen, who will captain England for the fourth time in tomorrow's friendly against Portugal, hit back at the controversial Manchester United skipper.
"It's easy for people to say we never did this or that, but the fact is we went out to the eventual winners," said Owen.
"It's obvious to anyone that we gave our all. Whenever we put an England shirt on we give it our all.
"As for the shirt-swapping, I didn't do that until about an hour after the game. It was the furthest thing from my mind. Unfortunately, some people seem to have different theories on where we went wrong."
Keane launched his stinging assessment of England following the serialisation of his outspoken autobiography, which has already landed him with a double misconduct charge from the FA.
England's players were angered at Keane's no-holds barred attack and his United team-mate Rio Ferdinand insisted his skipper's remarks were wide of the mark. He said: "When we were playing Brazil, swapping shirts was a long way down our list of priorities, I can tell you.
"I'm sure almost every player at the World Cup swapped shirts. That's part and parcel of football, but Roy's entitled to his own views.
"Everyone's chest was out when we played Brazil. The nights leading up to the game we were sitting around saying we had a really good chance to win the World Cup. But we just didn't produce on the day.
"We definitely went into the World Cup thinking we could win every game. We were growing in confidence and we had a genuine belief that we were going to beat Brazil. If we'd gone in at half-time 1-0 up, I reckon we'd have gone on to win the game."
While Keane's claims have ruffled feathers in the England camp, it emerged last night that he has been trying to make peace with his former Republic of Ireland team-mates Niall Quinn and Steve Staunton.
Quinn's effort to shake hands with the disgraced United star following his sending-off at Sunderland on Saturday was part of a planned healing process.
The pair had agreed to make a public display of reconciliation despite Keane insulting the pair in his controversial autobiography and interviews.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson ruined that display by angrily telling Quinn to move away as Keane walked off the pitch after elbowing Jason McAteer.
But it is understood that Keane has instructed his agent and lawyer Michael Kennedy to contact Quinn, and former Republic skipper Staunton, once again to offer an olive branch.