Monk: Players starting to look the part now
GARRY Monk has praised his Blues players for wearing the shirt ‘how it should be worn’. Having guided his team to their opening win of the season, in which they inflicted Leeds United’s first defeat, the Blues boss reflected on the qualities his men have shown.
Blues, who have the longest unbeaten run in the Championship, came close to beating West Brom, Swansea, Norwich and Nottingham Forest but had to settle for draws.
However, the mantra throughout that frustrating run was to focus on producing quality displays and Monk is happy that has finally happened.
“We want better, we have tried to change the mentality of the players and bring that to the fans, we have done that up to this point,” he said.
“We have restrictions, we have had a lot of problems outside the football but what we have done within is really focus on delivering performances and wearing that shirt how it should be worn.
“Those players have done that from day one, from the end of last season into this season, it will take time but the performance levels we have reached this season have been a really, really high level.
“We have played pretty much all of it, we have seen the whole league, seen the very top and the teams at the bottom and we have performed very, very well.
“We have got to back this result up but we have been backing up our performances.
“It’s been quite a few games in a row now where we have outperformed teams but not got our reward. But we haven’t felt sorry for ourselves, we have kept pushing the perfor- mance and kept trying to do the right things. At Leeds we got our reward.
“Normally in winless runs it looks messy, it’s inconsistent, but everyone that has watched us would say our performance levels have been really, really high.
“We haven’t lost any confidence, nothing has been dented, we have been very focused, that’s where the belief has come from. Leeds was the reward for all that. What we must do is make sure we enjoy the win, you have to enjoy wins, but we will be ready for next week and we have got a tough game and we will have to back it up.”
That will be against Ipswich Town, who are the only remaining winless team in the Championship.
The Tractor Boys are the division’s joint-lowest scorers but the task before Blues is now a very different one. Having defended resolutely against Sheffield United and Leeds, they must find a way through redoubtable opponents at home.