Robert Earnshaw's Wembley Howler to give him nightmares

Posted Thursday, September 08, 2011 by Dailystar.co.uk

Robert Earnshaw's Wembley Howler to give him nightmares
Above: Earnshaw can't believe it after his glaring Wembley miss

Robert Earnshaw yesterday admitted that his Wembley howler will give him nightmares.

But the Cardiff striker insisted his gaffe would leave no permanent damage and warned Saturday’s opponents Doncaster that he was itching to take his frustrations out on them.

Wales were trailing 1-0 against England with 14 minutes remaining when Earnshaw, 30, was presented with a tap-in.

But he sent his left-foot shot high over the bar and now looks set to feature on Christmas football bloopers DVDs.

“I’ll never watch it,” said Earnshaw.

“I’m stuck on 200 goals – I’m devastated. To say the least I’m p****d off and look out Doncaster because I’m annoyed!

“For a few days I am one of those that have nightmares and everything like that. I know I should have scored and all my team-mates know I should have scored but I’m not one of those to hide.

“But the major thing is, for the whole team, it was a big performance. We were never out of the game.

“Two or three years ago, it would have been three or four nil.

“That’s the progression – we lose narrowly and should have drawn.”

Earnshaw’s Wales and Cardiff team-mate Darcy Blake said: “It was one of those things. Maybe I could have put it in myself!”

Centre-back Blake, 22, also revealed how he missed out on landing Wayne Rooney’s shirt.

“I spoke to Rooney in the game,” he said.

“I asked him for his top but I never quite got there. I never spoke to him after.

“I tackled him quite hard so maybe that is the reason that we never spoke after. I had to be aware of Rooney all the time, if you give him half a chance he will put it in the net.

“So I didn’t want to give him that.

“The key to handling him was keeping him in front of us, as tight as we can, and make life hard for him and we did that.

“I thought that we were going to get the point we deserved as they were hanging on in the end.”