Gareth Southgate expected his England players to be jeered for taking the knee ahead of their win over Romania but again insisted they will continue to make the gesture going forward.

The Three Lions boss had asked for supporters not to boo the stance on the eve of this final Euro 2020 warm-up game at the Riverside Stadium but, as they did here on Wednesday night, a minority ignored Southgate’s pleas.

An experimental and inexperienced England earned a 1-0 victory over Romania through captain Marcus Rashford’s second-half penalty but it was the pre-match reaction which again lingered over the contest.

Jordan Henderson’s return to action as a second-half substitute was marred by a penalty miss of his own, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jadon Sancho both hit the crossbar.

Southgate and his players agreed on the decision to continue to take the knee as a gesture against racism and inequality despite the recent incidents, and he explained after the win that the stance will not change.

“I think I sadly sort of expected what happened to happen,” he said.

“We’ve accepted that, as a group. It isn’t going to stop what we are doing and what we believe. It certainly isn’t going to stop my support for our players and our staff.

“That’s it, we are going to have to live with that. We’ve said what we are going to say now.

Harry Maguire was unable to feature in either warm-up game as he aims to recover from ankle ligament damage and play at some stage of the tournament – but Southgate also offered a positive update his progress with the Manchester United captain now running.

Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka was the match-winner against Austria on Wednesday but was not included in the squad as Southgate confirmed he had a slight issue.

“He has a minor hip flexor injury,” the England boss added.

“So we’re hoping he should train by the middle of the week and then we’ll assess that day by day. But it is not one that we’re concerned about.”