Blues begin to get act together as squad stick to the plan
HARLEE Dean insists Blues still have plenty of work to do before they can claim to have turned their season round.
The defender has been a key part of an increasingly cohesive team who have won their last three matches and not conceded a goal for nearly five hours.
There is a much different feel to when he called for unity among the squad after the troubling defeat to Barnsley three months ago.
However, as pleased as he was with the way Blues worked their way to a narrow 1-0 victory over Burton last weekend – following up wins against Leeds and Reading – he is not taking anything for granted.
“You can never get too high nor too low in football, otherwise you are in trouble,” Dean said.
“I was down, I was honest with my opinion but I always knew – and I think I said it – that the squad had the quality to turn it around.
“And we haven’t turned it around yet, we have only won three games. I don’t think we can sit here and say ‘it’s all good and we are flying’ because we are still in a relegation battle.
“But the manager and the staff have got us where they want us right now, we are where we want to be and we have just got to keep continuing and working hard – even harder – and getting results that are going to get us up the table.
“While it’s nice to be in the fourth found of the cup it’s even nicer to have won a third one on the bounce. Winning the game, making sure we are confident going into the week ahead, because when we lose it’s not a nice feeling around the training ground – and it’s been too often.”
Manager Steve Cotterill made no secret of the fact a lack of confidence was a big issue when he first took over
That seems to be creeping back into a team that has now scored four goals without reply and won three consecutive matches for the first time since October 2015.
But Dean insists the upturn hasn’t only taken place between the ears.
“I don’t think it’s just confidence, it’s a plan, the plan is evident now, we have got pressing tactics, we know where everybody is going to be when we are out of possession,’’ he said.
“We know what we are going to do when we are in possession. I said it when we were going through a tough spell, the personnel we have got is probably second to none in this league.
“Hopefully now we are showing what we are about and winning and keeping clean sheets is going to grow confidence. Hopefully we can keep getting results.
“I think before we changed to this pressing system, which the manager has wanted to do since he has come in and now feels is the right time, the service to the strikers and wide men probably wasn’t good enough from us from the back.
“It was difficult for them to score, it was a team thing, we weren’t scoring because of the whole team.
“But now we are pressing, we are winning the ball higher and we are not having to defend for the whole game.
“We have got a lot more energy, which gives us a lot more composure and time on the ball when we do get it back.”