Berra Out to Continue Birmingham Goals Run
Friday, 18th Sep 2015 06:00

Ipswich defender Christophe Berra goes into tonight’s home clash with Birmingham City looking to extend an impressive scoring record against them.

Berra has scored three times in four games against the Midlands outfit and is keen to get off the mark for the season after seeing partner Tommy Smith net twice already.

The 30-year-old Scot said: “It would be great to keep that run going but no doubt I’ll be a marked man when I go up for the set pieces.

“It’s always good to score goals but the main priority is the team and winning games. I’ve not really had many scoring chances this season to be honest but as long as the team is winning, that’s all that really matters.”

Berra is in understandably chirpy mood going into the Birmingham game after Town’s 1-0 win at Leeds on Tuesday drew a firm line under last week’s embarrassing 5-1 defeat at Reading.

He said: “The win at Leeds was massive. I don’t think we had won there since I’ve been at the club and it’s a difficult place to go. But we were solid and put on a great performance. It was back to our normal stuff.

“Against Reading we weren’t ourselves, we played differently. We weren’t up and at them, squeezing and making a fight of it. We were maybe a wee bit nicer on the eye with the ball, but too nice and that’s not us.”

Berra was delighted that manager Mick McCarthy, urged by some to ring the changes at Elland Road, was rewarded for his loyalty to the players after he merely introduced Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the injured Freddie Sears and replaced Brett Pitman with Daryl Murphy in attack.

Berra added: “Reading were ruthless against us. They had six shots and scored five, and that happens in football.

“Obviously you’re hurt and your pride takes a hit getting beaten 5-1, especially as a defender, but we get on with it, we move on and we bounced back quickly on Tuesday night.

“You just have to take it on the chin. In this job you’ve got to be hard-nosed and get on with it.

“Ever since I’ve been here this has been our best start to the season in terms of points gained and the gaffer knows it’s difficult to get a team performance if you keep chopping and changing. He’s not one for that and we’ve not got a big enough squad to do that either.

“He always keeps the faith with players. If performances drop for two or three games then I’m sure you’d get the call to his office, but at Reading it was the whole team that didn’t hit the standards we’d set in previous games.

“It’s good to get a kick up the backside now and again. On Tuesday night we went back to what we’re good at and showed that teams don’t like playing against us.

“The clean sheet was a bonus — it’s what defenders pride themselves on — and we now have 13 points from five games. If you go by two points a game over a season that is usually good enough for promotion.”

Photo: Action Images

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