Hungary thrashed England 4-0 away on Tuesday to go top of their Nations League group and hand the Three Lions their worst home defeat for 94 years in a competition Gareth Southgate's side had hoped would be a good warm up for the World Cup later this year.
Southgate made nine changes from the team that drew with Italy at the weekend to give players on the fringe a chance. But despite dominating possession, England created few chances and the experiment backfired.
The result was the Three Lions' worst home defeat since 1928. It was the worst possible end to England's run of four Nations League games in 11 days and will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of fans with just two games in September to go until the World Cup. However, manager Southgate urged his detractors to judge his team at full strength.
"It's a chastening night," said Southgate.
"When you lose so heavily at home, especially, that's going to be very, very painful.
"It was a difficult night for the players, I feel for them. Because in the end, in the two Hungry games in particular, I picked teams where I tried to balance the squad, gave young players opportunities and I didn't get the balance right to help them to be able to perform at the level that they needed to to win those matches.
"The responsibility lies with me on that but there was also a fact that it was really difficult to put the strongest team out in every game.
"So we used it to prepare for Qatar, some of those players are going to be beyond Qatar as well. But of course a night like tonight is really difficult and it's important that I take that off of their shoulders, because that's totally down to me."
England v Hungary ratings
England captain Harry Kane, who provided some of England's few moments of quality and hit the bar with a header, acknowledged his side's second half capitulation was "unacceptable" but also urged fans to be forgiving.
"It’s our first big defeat in a long time. It's not time to panic, it’s time to keep our heads up," he said.
"A night to forget but we have to take it on the chin and move forward, prepare for a big World Cup, and we’ll learn a lot ... Let’s not forget where we’ve come from. It’s not going to be perfect every game."
Manager Southgate was subjected to chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning". But the manager remained defiant.
"I know the role. I knew the role before I took it," Southgate said.
"I would say it's happened over the period of 10 days, but I saw my predecessors go through that and I know great people like Sir Bobby Robson, what he had to go through and how he was viewed in the end on getting the team to a World Cup semi-final so football is emotional.
"People pay to come and watch. They're going to give an opinion. The team weren't able to deliver tonight, my responsibility and so if the flak comes my way then I have to deal with that.
"It's not realistic to have had the ride I've had for five years and not have bad nights."
