Manager Steve Bruce has been holding his pre game press conference ahead of Aston Villa’s trip to Fulham this weekend and our gaffer is staying grounded.
With seven straight wins behind us and an emotional Second City derby last weekend, Bruce knew that it had given everyone a lift – not least himself given his personal time out – and he felt we were well placed to capitalise on what was ‘arguably one of our best performances of the season’ against Birmingham and push on a win eight on the trot for the first time in over four decades.
Speaking to the Birmingham Mail and the wider media as he held his first proper interview since the loss of his father and his mothers illness, Bruce knew there was ‘nothing quite like beating your rivals’ but even given the run we are, nothing has been achieved yet and there’s plenty of work still to do.
‘Slowly but surely we hope we’re turning the tide a little bit. We`ve achieved nothing. We`re not going to get carried away because we`ve won the derby. We can’t think we’re Real Madrid because we’re not. After an awful start we`re looking a very good side now.’
Bruce is absolutely right, a woeful start has seen us turn the tide and start picking up the points we need and want to achieve our sole stated aim of gaining promotion this year and whilst the table looks a hell of a lot more attractive with us sitting in second place, we are only one point ahead of both Derby County and Cardiff City – although we have a game in hand on Derby – so the look of the table could change quickly this weekend if any complacency creeps in.
Bruce admitted his remit at the start was to simply stay in the Championship and he joked the last 15 months have felt like ’15 years’ as he tightened us up, got some belief back and got us to this point where confidence is flowing, but the work is still far from done. There will be a hiccup or two between now and the end of the season and it’s about how we respond to those hiccups.
We have to approach Fulham fresh as they are in good form with four wins out the last five and they are going to be a tough test, and if the news on Jack Grealish and Albert Adomah is worst case, then that’s another hurdle we have to overcome.
This is where the spirit in the group and the attitude of the likes of John Terry can become massive for us.
But whilst we can still potentially chase Wolverhampton Wanderers down, the attitude has to be ‘we’ve achieved nothing yet’ and I don’t blame Bruce for ramming that home in the dressing room.
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