John Terry has backed Harry Maguire after his recent piece of history and hit out at his critics who called him out last week.
The England and Manchester United centre-half opened the scoring for the Three Lions as they demolished San Marino on Monday night.
Maguire has now scored seven times for his country, the most of any central defender in history.
The 28-year-old has scored twice in his last two outings for England having nodded home in the win over Albania on Friday night.
Terry, who did have the record once upon a time with six international goals, has backed his compatriot after his historic effort.
He said on Twitter : " @HarryMaguire93 Congratulations mate. @England Highest scoring defender. Let’s see if a few of these pundits talk about that."
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Maguire found himself on the receiving end last week following his celebration at Wembley.
After scoring against Albania the United skipper cupped his ears as if to call out his critics.
That resulted in some heavy backlash, especially given his club side's performances this term.
Roy Keane said on ITV : "I think he puts his hands to his ears like he's shut the critics up, but I think that's embarrassing."
Simon Jordan meanwhile said on TalkSport it was "childish and immature".
With United Maguire has been part of a defence that has desperately struggled to keep clean sheets.
The Red Devils are in a poor run of form, which Maguire will be hoping they can start to amend this weekend at Watford.
Nevertheless he has defended his actions, claiming it was simply a natural reaction to scoring.
He said: "The celebration was a knee slide, it just came naturally to me. It's an amazing feeling to score for my country.
"It wasn't directed at anyone, it just came naturally to do that and open the scoring for England and get the important three points."
Southgate added of Maguire's celebration: "Is he a Hulk Hogan fan? I don't know what the celebration was for. He's a fabulous player, two months ago he was in the Euros team of the tournament.
"He's rushed back because he's the sort of player who has a huge conscience to help his club. You get lots of players who hide in the treatment room when pressure is on.
"He hasn't done that and I have massive respect for that but you can go into matches not fully fit and you're judged as fully fit in those moments."
Three of Maguire's seven international goals have come in the last three months.
He has also notched in the last two major tournaments - against Sweden in 2018 and Ukraine back in the summer.
