Berra warns Wolves against FA Cup complacency at Tranmere
Dec 31 2009 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail
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CHRISTOPHE Berra has warned that Wolves will have to be “110 per cent” on the ball to avoid FA Cup embarrassment at Tranmere Rovers on Sunday.
The Scottish defender expects to be available despite the jarring fall which saw him substituted during the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City last weekend.
The incident looked shocking but appears to have had no long-term effects so, depending on manager Mick McCarthy’s team selection, Berra could be in the back line for the cup game at Prenton Park.
He knows that, with the League One strugglers desperate to lift their dire season with a giant-killing, Wolves will be under pressure, albeit a very different kind from facing the likes of big-spending Manchester City.
“There is pressure on every game,” Berra said. “You also put pressure on yourself to perform and in my case I’m always my biggest critic. If I don’t keep my standards up, then I’m always disappointed.
“But it’s always going to be difficult going away from home against a team from a lower league and they will no doubt treat it as a cup final. Whatever our team is we’ve got to be right on the ball 110 per cent. If we are not we will be in trouble.”
Tranmere languish 66th in the league pyramid and are only just starting to recover from John Barnes’s brief and ill-fated stint as manager early this season, so Wolves, for one of the very few times this term, will start a match as favourites.
They must change their mindset from the one they took into facing Manchester City’s multi-millionaires. However, McCarthy’s men can feel that, although beaten by City, they took plenty of positives from the match.
“We did well in the first half,” said Berra. “Their first goal from Tevez was fortunate as I had just gone to close him down and on another day it might have come back in the same direction rather than into the net.
“It’s just one of those things, but apart from that we had done all right against what is a quality team. We passed the ball well but we got punished, which is what happens against the top teams who have players costing millions and millions of pounds. We’ve just got to learn from it and move on.
“I think the gaffer was pleased with how we’d played and it’s just disappointing we didn’t pick up any points. As he said, it’s not these games which are going to decide our season but the ones against the teams in and around us and this season it’s all very tight. There are a lot of big games ahead.”
