Marcus Bent: Birmingham City players fired up
Nov 25 2008 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
prepared to say what we think. We want everyone to do well.
“We came out and got ourselves together, like we did in the previous game against Charlton Athletic, and came away with the three points.”
There are no shortage of strong, opinionated players in the Blues camp.
Bent and fellow experienced heads Kevin Phillips, Lee Carsley, Maik Taylor, Franck Queudrue and Nigel Quashie have been around the block and know what’s what.
Then you have the likes of the up and comers James McFadden, Liam Ridgewell, Quincy, Garry O’Connor, Cameron Jerome and Sebastian Larsson who are not afraid to air their views.
Bent, echoing yesterday’s comments of captain Carsley, said the underlying reasons for the squabbles were a desire and passion to win, and also lift standards.
“We keep saying it, that we have got a group of talented professionals, we can all perform at the highest level, but don’t seem to be just quite ‘there’ yet,” stated Bent. “We don’t seem to be at our full pace yet.
“Maybe that’s a good thing. There’s still a long season to go.
“We are winning, we are picking up three points, but we are making it hard on ourselves as well.
“I don’t know why, I can’t work it out. Maybe we want to do it the hard way, that’s our character, I don’t know. If I did know, I’d be a manager or a critic.
“Speaking about character, we showed positive team morale to come back on Friday and last week against Charlton. That stands us in such good stead.”
It did to get Blues through their mini-slump and tonight they will be determined to beat Ipswich in order to keep snapping at the heels of Championship leaders Wolves – who have a tough game at Sheffield United tonight – before visiting Molineux for a crunch fixture on Saturday.
“I said at the start of the season, if we carried on playing the way we were but went up, I think the fans would boo most games but be happy,” smiled Bent.
“They want to come to see us playing more, they want to come and shout for their favourite players who excite them, they want to go home talking about what a great performance and result it was. We know that.
“But the be-all and end-all is the Premier League and that’s what we are aiming for. This division is very, very tough. You just have to look at the results, everybody can beat everybody. It’s about being consistent and getting the wins, that’s what matters – and we know there’s more to come from us.”
