Given makes case for defence

[Mark (Blue Army)]

Shay Given believes that the Blues must fight fire with fire against Stoke in tomorrow’s latest episode of their league and Cup saga.

The Republic of Ireland keeper is adamant that the Blues can give as good as they get when it comes to set-pieces and physical battles.

“We’ll go to Stoke tomorrow looking to cause them problems and because it’s one of our games in hand, it’s vital we get a good result,” he said.

“Then we’ll have to go there again the week after for the replay and hopefully by the end of all these games we’ll be experts at defending long throw-ins!

“The fact is, though, if we want to finish in the top four and win the FA Cup, we have to overcome whatever Stoke, and any other team for that matter, can pitch at us.

“We’ve got plenty of big guys of our own so there’s no reason we can’t handle whatever they can throw at us.”

With another tough fixture adding to an already difficult cluster of games in the next month or so, Given feels City need to quickly find their best form if they are to realise their goals.

“It’s the business end of the season and we’ve got a run of really difficult matches, but we’re fifth in the table and still in the cup,” he observed.

“We can’t be too despondent even if we’ve got Liverpool sandwiched between two tough games against Stoke.

“We just need to go there, play our own game and hopefully come away with a win. Then we can think about the weekend and not before.”

mcfc.co.uk

[trout man]

Getting a bit tired of the guts and glory speeches recently....what the hell else are they going to say..I would prefer them to come out and say that they have been spineless and indecisive recently and that they know they have let themselves and the fans down and are going to put it right. I would like to see a strong hard physical performance combined with the quality that we know we have and if we get beat then we can honestly say they gave it their all...that has not happened.

Too many players going missing.

[avoidconfusion]

Actions speak louder than words. We could have beaten Shay if you would come off your line for once and catch those throwins, they are traveling long enough.