The fear factor key for former Owl

Chris Brunt Celebrates his goal Albion winger Chris Brunt faces his former club Sheffield Wednesday urging his current employers to spread fear throughout the league.

The wide man believes the Baggies’ flying start to the season has put them in a better position than their Championship title-winning counterparts of two years ago.

As he prepares to return to Hillsborough tomorrow as his current club’s leading scorer, Brunt believes they are capable of creating a ‘fear factor’ among the rest of the division.

He said: “It’s important we set the pace. It’s good that we’re up there because maybe it does give a few sides a fear factor about us if they are chasing for the whole season. But the Championship is one of those leagues where you are only one or two defeats away from dropping down a few places.

“The mood is good, obviously, because we’ve had three good results. But there are two difficult games coming up away, with Cardiff at home to follow, so we need more points.”

Brunt is one of the surviving members of Tony Mowbray’s table-topping side of 2007-08 with much of the squad radically changed since Jonathan Greening lifted the Championship trophy after a season that saw Albion bag more than 100 goals.

The winger new head coach Roberto Di Matteo has brought a subtle change of style to match the turnover in personnel.

He said:“I think we are a lot more resilient. A lot of our training has been based around trying to make us better defensively as a team, which is an important part of the game. There are two sides to every match, one when you’re going forward and one when you’re defending. We have been a lot more solid at the back this season than we have been last season or the season before.

“That has played a part in us getting some results this season and hopefully we can keep that going throughout the season. If we have a good base defensively in every game we have enough talent going forwards to win games. That’s a good starting point.

“If you win a game 1-0 it’s as good as 4-0. As long as you get three points it doesn’t really matter. But clean sheets and conceding a minimal amount of goals has been a big part of it this season.

“We have scored a lot of goals, which has been well documented, but we also haven’t conceded a lot of goals either.”

The fixture takes Brunt back to the Steel City club that he served for three years after being released by Middlesbrough as a teenager.

And the Albion wide man reckons the meeting of two clubs boasting the heritage of Albion and the Owls demonstrates the challenge at hand in the Championship.

He said: “You go to Hillsborough and it’s a massive stadium. They’re a big club, but you can reel others off.

“Sheffield United, ourselves, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham Forest – they’ve all been in the Premier League and that shows how tough it will be to get out the Championship.

“Things are going well but it doesn’t take much to get sucked back into the pack. Wednesday have got massive potential. It’s well documented they had financial constraints and money plays a big part in Championship football.”

Losing Jonathan Greening and Paul Robinson in the summer transfer market has left Brunt, at just 24, as one of the elder statesmen in the Baggies dressing room.

The Northern Ireland international acknowledges the, as a veteran of one promotion campaign, experience he can bring to the camp this season.

Brunt said: “I’m definitely one of the more experienced ones, if you take out Dean Kiely and Robert Koren, and that’s quite scary in a way. But it shows how well we’re doing given how inexperienced we are. It bodes well for the future. We need to bring experience of winning games and having success.

“The league a couple of years ago was tight and it will be again this year. We only kicked on towards the end last time. At one stage we dropped to fifth and sixth.

“It’s important to keep getting the points, no matter how badly you’re playing.”

Wednesday have midfielder Tom Soares and striker Warren Feeney, signed yesterday on loan from Stoke and Cardiff respectively, in their squad.

See Also:

This article was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 3:45 pm.
View more articles about: albion, baggies, chris brunt, Clubs, dean kiely, jonathan greening, middlesbrough, newcastle, northern ireland, paul robinson, premier league, robert koren, roberto di matteo, sheffield united, sheffield wednesday, striker, tony mowbray.