England's World Cup team dodged hundreads of waiting fans and reporters when they flew back from Japan into Heathrow airport late on Saturday.
After a 12-hour flight, the team members posed briefly for photographers on the steps of their Boeing 777 jetliner halted near the terminal buildings.
Cheered on by airport workers who waved red-and-white St George's flags, the team led by coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and captain David Beckham headed to waiting buses on the tarmac.
Beckham grinned at the crowd and even goalkeeper David Seaman managed a smile.
But fans waiting in the airport terminal to welcome home their heroes were disappointed and Sunday newspapers were scathing about the low-key return.
"Our heroes are home -- but where was the heroes' welcome?" asked the News of the World.
"The Football Association was wrong to insist our boys skulked back into Heathrow on a night plane," it said. It sugguested that Prime Minister Tony Blair hold a spectacular party with the team as guests of honour.
The Sunday People said: "The England team were a credit to themselves, their families and their country. They played their lion hearts out for us and today our grateful hearts are with them. Happy homecoming."
The Sunday Times reported that a You Gov online poll it commissioned had found 86 percent of those surveyed thought Eriksson should stay on as team coach.
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