Sven-Goran Eriksson apologised for England's [Images] humiliating 1-0 defeat by Northern Ireland on Wednesday and said he would not resign as manager.

England's first loss in Belfast since 1927, to a team more than 100 places below them in the world rankings, dealt a body-blow to their hopes of reaching the football World Cup finals as Group Six winners.

"Of course, I'm very sorry, disappointed... as the players are. Sorry for the team, sorry for the three points we lost, sorry for the fans who paid a lot of money to travel here," Eriksson told a news conference.

"They want to see us play better football and to win, of course."

Asked for his reaction to reports that England fans at the ground were calling for his sacking, he said: "It's understandable, if you lose against Northern Ireland. I can't argue with that.

"I'm not going to resign. I'm going to make it right in October. Win two games and we are qualified.

"It's still in our hands."

England face Austria on October 8 and Poland four days later in two games at Old Trafford.

Eriksson accepted it is his worst experience as England manager, saying: "I think so, because it's a qualification game and we shouldn't lose here or even draw, we should win games like this."

HOSTILE REACTION

Reaction to England's defeat in a 4-3-3 formation is likely to be hostile, coming just four days after an equally unfamiliar and unconvincing 4-5-1 line-up delivered a 1-0 win over Wales.

"I don't think organisation or formation was the problem today," he said. "Almost all the players on the pitch played in position they do in their clubs... it can't be that reason.

"The result went very wrong. For 35 minutes we played exactly how we wanted, a lot of patience, we controlled the game, we created some half-chances.

"After that, we lost our patience, the spirit and we didn't find it at halftime or in the second half. That's why we lost the game."

The past week's frustrations also come after England lost a friendly in Denmark 4-1 last month.

"The attitude was better today than it was second-half in Denmark that's for sure but the result was worse. It's much, much worse to lose a qualification game 1-0 than a friendly 4-1."

Eriksson said he considered taking Wayne Rooney [Images] off at halftime after the striker picked a yellow card that will rule him out of the game against Austria, but opted not to.

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