EASY? MORE LIKE QUALITY STREET!
After years in Prem, Barry is relishing the Championship rough and tumble
GARETH BARRY says he was warned life in the Championship wasn’t going to be Easy Street.
No-one has played more Premier League games than West Brom’s 37-year-old former England midfielder.
He spent his entire footballing life in the top flight at Aston Villa, Manchester City and Everton so dropping down a level with West Brom was never going to be easy.
But he says he is relishing the relentlessness of the Championship, all 46 games of it, even if team-mates warned him to wear a tin hat.
Barry said: “I have experienced a lot of football in the Premier League but the lads who had played in the Championship let me know what it was going to be like.
“It is relentless. There are a lot of games. But from the outset I have tried to enjoy it and that leads to you playing better football.”
Promotion rivals Norwich visit the Hawthorns today and Barry says the Canaries will provide another stiff test.
“We’re expecting a really tough game,” he said. “The away game was end to end (Baggies won 4-3 in August) and could have gone either way that day.
“I think they’ve surprised a few people with their performances so we’ll need to be on our game to win it.”
The 2-1 loss at Blackburn on New Year’s Day was West Brom’s first defeat in nine Championship outings. But boss Darren Moore (below) and his men bounced back by beating Wigan in the FA Cup last weekend and Barry says they now need to go on another long unbeaten run.
He added: “You’re going to need runs like the one in December if you want to finish in the top two positions.
We’ll need two or three of those runs throughout the campaign.
“After Blackburn we need to bounce back and try and start another run like it. It’s going to be important to start that at the weekend.”
Baggies will have to do it without influential midfielder Harvey Barnes, who has been recalled by Leicester after a successful loan period at the Hawthorns.
West Brom fans are up in arms after the 21-year-old, who weighed in with nine goals, was recalled early by the Premier League club.