icBirmingham - Bruce orders Blues double
icBirmingham logo
icBirmingham Motors Jobs Homes Dating Post Mail Mercury What's On Grocery Coupons
Search icBirmingham for:
This section is no longer in use, please click on the links below to view news and sport from:

Birmingham Post Birmingham Mail Sunday Mercury


Bruce orders Blues double

Nov 9 2004

By Colin Tattum, Evening Mail

 

Steve Bruce today told Blues that beating Liverpool would mean nothing unless they could make it a Merseyside double.

Everton visit St Andrew's on Saturday and Bruce wants more of the same that helped them triumph at Anfield.

"You can see in the stuff they've done in training already this week that there's a buzz about the players again," said the manager.

"And I'm really pleased for them. Make no mistake, all a footballer wants to do is win. The criticism and all the rest of it they've taken has hurt them.

"It has been a tough last five or six weeks because whatever we've said, however well we've played, we haven't won games and we all know the pressure that that brings.

"But this league is very, very hard. Arsenal haven't won their last three in the Premiership, that just shows you.

"Hopefully, the monkey is off our back and we can kick-on.

"One thing I don't want, however, is for us to think we can now just turn up against Everton and collect three points.

"Just because we won at Liverpool, for the first time since 1978, it doesn't mean we're out of it. We're still down there at the bottom of the table. One swallow doesn't make a summer, as the saying goes."

Bruce readily admitted that Blues rode their luck last Saturday as they ended an eight-match winless run in the league.

"You could say that it was a good time to go to Liverpool. They'd come off the back of a European game, were without their front two and possibly the best midfielder in the country in Steven Gerrard.

"That's the little bit of luck that we haven't had recently.

"Then again, they found out how difficult it is when you haven't got your big, creative players. It was a bit like us having lost Mikael Forssell, Clinton Morrison, Dunny, Stan Lazaridis, people like that.

"They had a couple of chances but I cannot really remember them carving us open. The first one came from two ricochets and landed at their lad's feet, the second one from that back-heel by Jesper Gronkjaer, the third from a corner.

"We dug deep. I thought the goalkeeper, the two centre-halves, Julian Gray, Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet and big Emile Heskey up the front were terrific.

"It's just what we needed, some of the key players to perform well - but we can't afford to let up."

 

Top Top | Back Back |

E-mail to a friend | Printable version

 

 


Copyright and Trade Mark Notice
© 2012 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Midlands Limited.
icBirmingham™ is a trade mark of Trinity Mirror Midlands Limited.
Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement before using this site.
 
Advertisement Links

Find your new job:
 
 
  e.g. secretary