England interim manager Gareth Southgate has leapt to the defence of Wayne Rooney after the Three Lions skipper was booed during Saturday’s World Cup qualifying victory over Malta.

First-half goals from Daniel Sturridge and Dele Alli helped England maintain their 100 percent start to the qualifying campaign, but the country’s all-time leading goal-scorer was subject to criticism from some sections of the Wembley crowd.

Rooney, who has been left on the bench for his club-side Manchester United’s last three matches, played the full 90 minutes of Saturday’s game, and Southgate believes criticism of his captain is completely unjustified.

“The criticism of him is at times unfair,” Southgate said. “He ploughs on and plays with pride and captains his country with pride.

“The booing? I don’t understand it but that seems to be the landscape and I have no idea how that’s expected to help him.”

Rooney’s England and Manchester United team-mate Jesse Lingard, who made his full international debut during the match, was also quick to defend his skipper, and he hopes the former Everton man can play a key role in the Three Lions next match away in Slovenia on Tuesday.

Lingard said: “It’s a shame and I don’t think he deserves that. He’s done really well tonight and hopefully he’ll get his confidence back now and move on to the next game.”

The Three Lions will fancy their chances of securing another victory on Tuesday, as they have won all four previous meetings with Slovenia, including home and away successes during qualifying for Euro 2016.