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World Cup pain driving Chris Brunt
Friday 3rd September 2010, 10:30AM BST.
Albion winger Chris Brunt believes the pain of missing the World Cup will fuel Northern Ireland’s desire when their Euro 2012 qualifiers kick-off.
Nigel Worthington’s men are in Maribor to take on Slovenia tonight.
But Brunt insists they are still hurting from the 2-0 defeat to Slovakia in their final World Cup qualifier – a result that sent the Slovaks to South Africa and left Northern Ireland watching on television.
He said: “It was a very hard defeat to take. What made it worse was the fact that it happened at Windsor Park and we knew we could beat them.
“We don’t fear anyone at Windsor but it was a kick in the teeth, a damaging psychological blow.
“It was the manner of the defeat that left a sick feeling in the stomach and, although we needed other teams to do us favours, we let ourselves down.
“That was the end of the road for us and you say to yourself that you have to experience those lows to come back stronger and it makes you want things even more.
“The young players can learn from these experiences and hopefully we can get it right.
“It’s a tough group with Italy, Serbia and Slovenia, three teams who competed at the World Cup, but we believe we can do it.”
“Yes, they are good teams but we have beaten the odds before and the disappointment of the World Cup qualifying campaign can drive us on to better days.”
Brunt and Co will take on a Slovenia side, captained by former Hawthorns midfielder Robert Koren, who also made it to the World Cup.
But the Baggies wide man knows the value of a solid start to the campaign.
He said: “It’s important to start as well as we can. We could have started a lot better in the last campaign and that’s why we ended up with nothing.
“We are capable of getting good results, the team earned a draw in Poland but it all comes down to the performance and preparation.
“We have gone close to qualifying for tournaments but not quite got across the line and we want to do that.
“Everyone believes we can go one step better if we work hard and play well.”
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