Gareth Southgate's closest friend, Bromley manager Andy Woodman, has shot back at criticism of the England team ahead of their Euros clash with Slovakia on Sunday.
Having met as teenagers in the Crystal Palace youth system, Southgate and Woodman have been mates for over 35 years. With the former going on to represent his country on the pitch and in the dugout, and the latter making his career largely in the second and third divisions, the pair wrote about their divergent paths in the joint biography Woody and Nord: A football friendship. (‘Nord’ being Southgate’s nickname at Palace, for sounding like television presenter Denis Norden.) They were also one another’s best man, and Southgate is godfather to Woodman’s footballer son, Freddie.
