BEN FOSTER feels the England fans were "well within their rights" to boo Steve McClaren's under-performing side off the Old Trafford pitch following their disappointing 1-0 defeat to Spain on Wednesday night - but has praised the head coach for having the "balls" to allow him to achieve his footballing dream.

The international debutant was rightly pleased with his performance after being one of the few England players to emerge with credit from the friendly setback and he revealed that he barely slept after returning home in the early hours of Thursday morning, as the enormity of what he'd achieved began to sink in.

"Personally, I thought it went very well," the on-loan Watford keeper said of his display. "I didn't have a lot to do but I was pretty solid, composed and calm and made a decent save but I didn't have much chance with the goal."

That save to keep out Valencia striker David Villa's swerving effort from the edge of the penalty area came before he was beaten by an arrowing Andres Iniesta right-footed drive that most pundits agreed the Manchester United stopper had little chance of saving. But was his view of the ball obscured by Phil Neville?

"Phil was in the way at the time and I had to wait for it to come past him before I could have a go at it," Foster confirmed, before admitting: "It inhibited me a little bit, but I don't know if I would have saved it regardless. It was a great goal to be fair."

The quality of Iniesta's strike was in marked contrast to the England display and, reflecting on a losing start to his international career, the former Stoke City player said: "We were booed off at full-time by the fans but, at the end of the day, the fans pay their money and they want to see a good performance and us win the match and I thought they were well within their rights."

Asked where he thought it went wrong, Foster replied: "I think maybe the pitch wasn't in the greatest of shapes and wasn't conducive to good, passing football, but generally we were quite sloppy and gave away the ball too much.

"We started really well in the first ten, 15 minutes and I thought we would give a good performance but it slowed down from there. We started the second-half in the same sort of vein but then Spain went into the ascendency and dominated the match."

Read the full interview with England's new keeper in this week's printed edition of the Watford Observer.