GARETH SOUTHGATE warned his England rookies to stay cool in front of Montenegro’s volatile fans tonight.
Wayne Rooney was sent off for retaliation in Podgorica in 2011.
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Two years later Ashley Cole was spat at and missiles were thrown at Joe Hart and Steven Gerrard.
Southgate said: “It’s really intense here with a passionate local support — which is often the way travelling to play qualifying ties in Europe.
“It’s a really good experience for the younger players to go through and see how they come through it.”
Boss Southgate admits Three Lions players have struggled to keep their discipline when provoked in big games.
He said: “Our undoing has often been a lack of discipline in matches.
“That’s expected of this group now so they have to respond in the right way and stay calm in big moments.
“A lot of times, going down to ten men affects the result of games.
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“We have to make sure we don’t allow them that opportunity.”
Russian keeper Igor Akinfeev was hit by a flare thrown from the stands during a Euro 2016 qualifier here.
The match was abandoned and Russia awarded a 3-0 win.
Southgate, 48, added: “We’ve no evidence of any racism here but we have certainly witnessed flares on the pitch.
“We’ve spoken about not going over to deal with those on your own — it’s the referee’s responsibility to deal with anything thrown on the field.
“We have to alert him to it. There is a danger in picking those things up and we’ve made the players aware of that — even the goalkeeper got that.”
England started Friday’s 5-0 win over Czech Republic with a team whose average age was just 24 years 337 days.
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And Kyle Walker is the only player in the squad with previous experience of Montenegro.
He was a squad member in 2011 when Rooney got a three-match ban for reacting to defender Miodrag Dzudovic and home fans goaded England supporters for a fight afterwards.
And the Manchester City full-back, 28, was an unused sub in a World Cup qualifier in 2013 when England drew 1-1 and home fans fought among themselves.
Southgate said: “Kyle spoke a bit in our meeting yesterday to help our players prepare for what’s coming so it’s not a surprise.
“They always have to be prepared for hostile environments whether in England or around the world.
“We prepare the players for everything but most important is to prepare tactically and make sure our performance levels are high.”
Midfielder Jordan Henderson, 28, claims he is not worried about any potential problems.
The Liverpool skipper — who is set to win his 50th cap tonight — said: “You don’t think about it, to be honest.
“You’re concentrating on the game, in the zone of playing football. The crowd is irrelevant. We’re there to put on a performance, get three points. The mentality is to be focused on playing football.
“It’s part and parcel of being a professional footballer. It might not be like that, it might be… but we have to be prepared for anything.”
Around 900 England fans are travelling to Montenegro but around 300 are believed to have tickets in the home end.
Southgate added: “I think we’ve done the best we can to make sure all our official tickets have gone to England Travel Supporters members.
“It’s hard to comment on those reports as I don’t know whether they’re factual or not.”
