Football: Blame me for defeat, says Sven.

Byline: By MARK BRADLEY 

DEFIANT Sven-Goran Eriksson declared he won't quit his pounds 5m a year post last night because England WILL qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals.

The Swede is facing a national backlash after his England side slumped to a humiliating 1-0 defeat to Group Six minnows Northern Ireland on Wednesday night.

But Eriksson has urged England fans not to panic because he's confident his team will beat Austria and Poland to book a trip to Germany next summer.

"Something has happened which shouldn't have happened and it's up to us to turn it right," he said. "But if you want to know who is responsible, then it's always me. I have to turn it right.

"It's about working, talking and not panicking. If we panic and switch 11 players, then it will never work. I should like to see all the big players we have fit 100%."

He continued: "If we want to play at the World Cup, we all have the knives here (indicating his throat). "But I'm sure we will respond in a very positive way.

"I could not even dream of not qualifying for the World Cup. We have to win the next two games. Will I quit if we don't? We're going to win them and that's it."

England's tactics and lack of passion were painfully exposed at Windsor Park, but Eriksson says he'll nevertheless insisted he would be keeping faith in the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham and Rio Ferdinand for next month's final two qualifiers.

"I took Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard off as I thought they were tired in the second half.

'But they will be better in October, both of them," declared Eriksson.

Wayne Rooney is, however, unavailable against Austria, having earned a one-game ban as his indiscipline returned to haunt a coach who must still find the striker's best position amid England's tactical confusion.

The answer in Eriksson's mind against Austria could be Liverpool's Peter Crouch, who was ruled out of these two games through injury, although the Swede is seemingly still too shell-shocked to have fully considered his options.

"To be honest, I haven't thought about that yet. Of course, we have other strikers. We will see Peter Crouch if he starts to play," he said.

When asked if he still remained convinced his players were good enough to compete with the likes of Brazil and Argentina in Germany, the England coach insisted: "I've no doubts about that."

Critics say Eriksson should ditch the 4-3-3 system that has caused such confusion among the England players in Belfast and return, when Rooney is available again, to 4-4-2 formation with the other striker playing in behind Michael Owen.

He will also hope his defence will be stiffened next month with the return of the injured Gary Neville, John Terry and Sol Campbell.

On his players' performance, Eriksson confessed: "We played well for 35 minutes but then we lost our patience and spirit.

I would say we have never lost it before in a qualification game.

"It's been a bad start to the season, I agree with that. But I think the players are intelligent people, almost all of them in the squad, and they want to work very hard