Micah Richards column

By Micah Richards
Manchester City and England defender

Wednesday's defeat in Russia was a massive disappointment for me and the rest of the England team.

It is so frustrating that qualification for the Euro 2008 finals is out of our hands after we had worked so hard to get our campaign back on track with five successive 3-0 wins.

It was gutting at the final whistle and I am hurting right now but this is where we have to show a strong character

Everyone was really down after the game and on the plane home on Wednesday night.

But the players have all stuck together. We didn't blame anyone for the goals we conceded. It is a team game and we all gave 100%.

Everything went wrong for us so quickly on the night. Russia had a good spell for five minutes and scored their two goals.

People are now saying England are not good enough but it was a hard game to play in and, apart from those five minutes, you cannot really blame us that much.

I am not going to use the artificial pitch as an excuse but I am not going to lie either - it made a difference.

Shaun Wright-Phillips and I were not our usual selves on the right - we tried to link up in the first five minutes when I went on a run and tried knocking the ball in front of me but it just stopped dead.

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We knew what to expect because we had played on it before but it was quite hard taking on a player with pace and using that side of my game.

The end result was so frustrating because we know that if we could have finished the chances that myself and Steve Gerrard had then it would have been a different story - but that is the thin line between winning and losing.

It was gutting at the final whistle and I am hurting right now but this is where we have to show a strong character.

At the end Steve McClaren just said to us 'stick together, we are not out yet.'

He has given us the belief that we can do it - that we can beat Croatia and other results will go our way - and it is not impossible. I was a bit disheartened on Wednesday but you have to keep believing.

It would be a big blow to miss out on the finals - everyone wants to play in them, same as you want to play in a World Cup.

But it is not over yet. Hopefully we can still qualify - there is not much more I can say, other than hope and pray.

I have said on numerous occasions I am happy at City. One day I hope to captain them and hopefully I will sign a new contract here very very soon

I have got to concentrate on Manchester City's game against Birmingham on Saturday now - and, while I am here, I would like to clear up some of the speculation about my future.

It was reported last week that I am keen to play for Arsenal soon but whoever is writing that is making up stories. It was based on something I said a long time ago.

As a young player someone is always waiting for you to slip up and say the wrong thing.

I still don't think I've done that yet. As I have told you in this column I have always been an Arsenal fan - I can't help that!

I have said on numerous occasions I am happy at City. One day I hope to captain them and hopefully I will sign a new contract here very soon.

I know I have been saying that for a couple of weeks but it is just down to the finer details now and hopefully, sooner rather than later, it will be done and dusted.

It is frustrating to have lots of stories around about my contract and things like buy-out clauses - which are total rubbish - but I know the truth and that is all that matters to me.

Micah Richards was talking to Chris Bevan