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Gareth Southgate admitted Ivan Toney was “disgusted” to be brought on so late in England’s nervy 2-1 win over Slovakia.
Southgate waited until the 84th minute to bring on his second substitution, Eberechi Eze for Kobbie Mainoo, and Toney was sent on 10 minutes later, with the score still 1-0.
“There’s no question that I think Ivan Toney was pretty disgusted when I put him on with a minute to go,” admitted Southgate. “I think we’ve made up now but he’s had a big impact, in the second goal as well.
“If you put a sub on at that time, it is a last roll of the dice. Maybe he doesn’t even touch the ball, so I completely understand it.
“I don’t like putting a player in that position, but I just had a feeling he might be able to cause the bit of chaos that happened.”
And with just over a minute left of stoppage time before England would suffer their earliest exit from a major tournament in eight years, Southgate maintained that he always had faith his team would turn it around.
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He said: “It’s strange, but I never felt tonight would be the end of our tournament. Even with the long throw you felt there’s hope that we can cause some chaos and something might drop.
“I didn’t think the finish would be quite as it was. You’re thinking with 15 minutes to go he [Bellingham] is absolutely out on his feet and should we take him off?
“But the sort of impact he can have on a game and those moments are why you stick with him at that time.”
Southgate pointed to England’s inability to build through Slovakia’s press as one of the most concerning aspects of his team’s performance.
But the former Middlesbrough boss praised his players’ patience to keep the belief right until the end.
Southgate said: “I think it’s one of those classic England nights where we put everybody through the mill, isn’t it?
“They [Slovakia] are a good team. It took us a long time to be able to work out how to get through that pressure.
“We were probing and we kept being patient. In the end we’re relying on a long throw to be the moment.
“But I think when you’ve pushed as much as you have and the opponents are out on their feet, then those moments can happen and you’ve got to keep the belief.”