Barnett told to take his Baggies chance

Nov 10 2007 By Chris Lepkowski, Birmingham Mail

LEON Barnett will be sent to Coventry this Monday and told to cement his place in the West Bromwich Albion side.

The Baggies centre-half has not played since last month's defeat to Colchester but will make his comeback at the Ricoh Arena following Martin Albrechtsen's knee ligament injury.

And Mowbray is more than satisfied that Barnett will make a swift return to form following a slip in his early season high standards.

The Baggies boss hopes the new-look central defensive partnership of Barnett and Bostjan Cesar will prosper.

"It's a reasonable assumption that he will play and form a partnership with Bostjan because he has been a little unfortunate not to be playing recently," said Mowbray.

"Let's hope his partnership is as fruitful as Bostjan's was with Martin and that Bostjan's experience helps Leon and helps them develop a partnership."

Mowbray admitted that Cesar was a feisty character, on matchdays and on the training pitch.

"He gets fired up in training," added Mowbray, about the Slovenian, who is on a season-long loan spell from Marseille. "Players tend to stay away from him in training - that's the way he plays and that's the way he trains.

"I thought he was going around kicking people in training because I wasn't playing him but to be fair he's still doing it.

"He's a big, honest, strong man - there was a period of adaptation for him where he had to do work in training and where certain parts of his game needed to improve to play in the Championship.

"We have to remember that he came from Le Championnat where it's a different game but he's adapted well and in the four games he's done well."