'Completely unacceptable' - Southgate slams racist abuse towards England players in Hungary

England's players received a rough reception before and during Thursday's World Cup qualifier against Hungary, with sections of the home crowd booing the team for kneeling ahead of the game, and manager Gareth Southgate has blasted the treatment as "unacceptable".

The Euro 2020 finalists ran out 4-0 winners in the Puskas Arena to extend their perfect start to the competition, thanks to a sublime second-half display. 

But matters on the pitch were overshadowed by a number of incidents involving fans in Budapest, including various missiles which were aimed at members of the away team. 

England received a taste of what was to come before kick-off when Gareth Southgate's charges kneeled on the pitch. 

The anti-racism gesture was not well-received, attracting fierce boos and jeers from parts of the Puskas Arena. 

The hostile atmosphere continued once the game was underway. 

Raheem Sterling, who opened the scoring for England after 55 minutes, was pelted with paper cups as he celebrated his strike, while a flare was thrown from the stands after Harry Maguire made it 3-0. 

Harry Kane and Declan Rice also got on the score-sheet, leaving England with four wins out of four in Group I to sit five points clear of nearest rivals Poland. 

"I'm just getting an understanding of what's happened because we weren't really aware of it on the bench," head coach Gareth Southgate told reporters. "So it sounds like there have been some incidents.

"Everybody knows what we stand for as a team and that's completely unacceptable. Everything has been reported to Uefa and we have to see what happens from there. There's no more than this group of players - and all the staff in fairness - could do in the fight against racism. We're trying to uphold our part of it and other people have got to take the right action to try and make progress.

"I haven't [spoken to the players yet] because I wasn't aware of it when I was in the dressing room. But I know our head of security has spoken with the players and has taken their statements. We'll deal with it in the right way now and through the right channels.

"I don't think our players can do anything more than they have done in the last two or three years to get the right messages out, to take the right stands and it is for other people to protect them. It is for me to protect them in the main but for the authorities to protect them as well."

After the match, Kane was unable to confirm whether or not his teammates had received racial abuse from fans.

"I didn't hear that. I will talk to the boys and see if they heard any of it," he told Sky Sports.

"We will have to report it to Uefa as the rules permit. If that is the case, hopefully, Uefa come down strong."

It is not the first time that Hungary's fans have garnered negative attention in international matches. 

Ireland players received a similarly negative reaction when taking the knee prior to a previous encounter in the country, while Uefa handed Hungary a three-match supporter ban due to racist and homophobic behaviour during Euro 2020 - a sanction that is not applicable to World Cup qualifying matches as they fall under Fifa's remit. 

"We always prepare the team for everything really," Southgate had explained to reporters before the game when asked if his players were expecting to receive racist abuse. 

"We've done that this week, but also we know we've had our own issues at home so we're not really focusing on other countries, we're focusing on ourselves and making sure we get our own things correct."