GARETH SOUTHGATE last night defended England's newest defensive partnership after coming through a baptism of fire with a few burns. The Middlesbrough defender and Birmingham City's Matthew Upson played their first full game together at the heart of a back four against Slovakia on Wednesday night.

Both players were given a torrid time by the visitors in a disastrous opening 45 minutes in which England struggled to adjust to playing with a diamond-shaped midfield.

But Southgate, who knows Upson only earned his third cap for his country, insisted the under-fire back-line were in control for the majority of the Group Seven clash - despite having to reshuffle defensively. With both Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell unavailable for the match, Southgate and Upson were handed the chance to shine.

And the experienced Boro star said: "Ideally, you have a settled team. But you don't get ideal situations in international games. It's been the same forever.

"We used to meet up on a Sunday and play on a Wednesday, and there was no time to work on things. You get on and deal with it as best you can, and we got three points and that's all that matters.

"I thought we coped with what we had to deal with. I think everyone on the pitch has to talk, and as the most experienced player you try to talk as much as possible."

The formation adopted by Sven-Goran Eriksson was largely to blame for the way Slovakia were able to find holes in the England defence. And Southgate reserved special praise for Eriksson, whose decision to dump the diamond shape late in the first half changed England's prospects.

"After being a goal behind, we were definitely relieved to win in the end," said the 32-year-old. " It showed character to come back from being one goal down and win.

"I think that the shape of the midfield in front of us didn't help.

"They were breaking in numbers on to us. Sometimes you have to defend as a team, and we didn't necessarily do that particularly well in the first half.

"Credit to the manager: he changed the shape and the personnel in midfield, and I thought that gave us a better balance."

Southgate's future on Teesside has been the subject of intense speculation since the Premiership season ended. The former Villa man is known to have attracted interest from Manchester United, Liverpool and Newcastle United.

But Boro chairman Steve Gibson has recently insisted his club skipper will not be sold and Southgate added: "I'm a Middlesbrough player and I've got two years left on my contract, and that's it."