Liverpool fans would never sink so low as to boo their own players
IT'S fair to say that Ashley Cole has never been my favourite footballer.
Yet at Wembley on Saturday, I found myself disgusted and shocked by the treatment he received at the hands of the so-called 'England Fans', a race which I have derided in this column before.
For those of you who had tired of the tripe dished up before half-time, and had turned over to watch much better footwork on Strictly Come Dancing, Cole was subjected to a barrage of boos every time he touched the ball after a miserable back-pass (at least I think that's what it was) presented Kazakhstan with an easy goal and potentially a way back into a match that was previously dead and buried.
For this heinous mistake, Cole's own fans hounded him like a Transylvanian mob storming Dracula's castle.
And no matter what the whitewash merchants try to tell you, this was no small minority, but a sizeable proportion of those present indulging in the most basic bear-baiting.
Only later did the more upstanding members of the crowd, or just the most guilty, try to counteract the jeering through half-hearted applause and support.
Now I realise that there will a substantial number of you reading this who will regard the Wembley fans' behaviour as perfectly understandable and reasonable
After all, the fans had paid their money and are therefore entitled to vent their feelings if they so choose.
To a point, I agree with this - but it must have limits.
No-one in their right mind, for example, would argue that your admittance money entitles you to single out players for racist abuse.
At the other extreme, no-one expects anyone watching a high-speed, emotional game like football to be perfectly polite and not lose their temper from time to time.
Somewhere in between lies the line that separates reasonable criticism from mindless vindictiveness and in my view the treatment of Cole was a Rory Delap throw over that line.
On this occasion, Cole's only sin was to make a mistake - a costly one maybe, but a genuine mistake.
He hadn't committed a deliberate sleight like gesturing at the crowd or displayed a careless attitude towards the wearing of the national shirt; he just kicked the ball somewhere it shouldn't have gone.
This incident got me racking my brains to see if I could think of any Liverpool player being treated in this manner by the Anfield faithful, and I'm glad to say that I failed.
Sure, certain players have tested our patience through the years, either through indolence (Stan Collymore) or just lack of ability (step forward Igor Biscan), and have received their fair share of groans and robust shouts of 'encouragement'.
Yet I can't recall any player being singled out for the abuse accorded to Cole, and certainly not for one honest mistake.
Was John Arne Riise booed off the pitch when he effectively knocked us out of the Champions League Final last year?
Those who argue that the treatment of Cole reflects our growing disillusionment with vastly overpaid footballers who have no connection with the fans are stretching a point - it's hard to find this as the reason why Peter Crouch was initially pilloried just for being tall.
No, this particular phenomenon is much more simply explained, in that our national team attracts more than its fair share of the type of support that sees only heroes or villains, idols or buffoons, saints or sinners. They're welcome to them.
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You don't recall Andriy Voronin being abused, albeit by a small minority, at Anfield earlier this season?