Rooney proud to play for England
The 25-year-old's relationship with the England fans appeared to cool when he criticised them after the woeful goalless draw with Algeria in the 2010 World Cup. Slowly but surely Rooney has started to win back the hearts fans and he aided that process by continuing his flying start to the campaign with two goals in last night's 3-0 win in Bulgaria which put England on course for the Euro 2012 finals. Rooney said: "What's happened has happened and I'm sure the fans, when I play, see I give 110% every game. "The fans were great in Bulgaria and thanks for their support and I hope they enjoyed the evening. "People ask if I've got love back to play for England but I've always loved playing for England. "I'll play for England until someone tells me I can't. I'm so proud to do that." Rooney believes England deserve credit for the way they have fought back from the despair of their performances in South Africa 15 months ago. They have a 100% away record in the qualifiers after wins over Switzerland, Wales and now the Bulgarians. Rooney said: "We have responded really well to what happened at the World Cup and through the qualifiers we've done well. "It was a great win in Bulgaria. I thought at the top of the pitch especially, we had a lot of movement and a lot of energy, with the players rotating around. "We made it really difficult for their defence to cope. "It was a great performance and, if we win Tuesday against Wales, we will more or less have qualified." Winger Stewart Downing has warned of the dangers of looking too far ahead as he called for England to repeat the level of their performance in Sofia against Gary Speed's side. He said: "Wales got a great result against Montenegro which has helped us in terms of qualifying but it's no use thinking yet about next summer. "We've got to go about our job properly on Tuesday night and try to beat Wales. "It does look very good for us but we have to maintain the standard of performance we showed against Bulgaria. Downing again impressed and Liverpool's summer capture from Aston Villa is starting to feel comfortable as part of the England set-up. He said: "I feel that I am an England player now and my aim was always to start games. "There is a good mixture of youth and experience and that helps the spirit. "The signs are good for the future judging on what we achieved against Bulgaria."