TAYLS SEEKS TOP-FLIGHT RETURN
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Andrew Taylorspoke to Press on New Year’s Eve ahead of City’s January 1st visit to Birmingham City.
And with Malky Mackay’s men top of the nPower Championship and five points clear of second placed Hull City, Taylor spoke of how his desire to return to the Premier League is spurring him on in the quest for promotion.
“It’s nice being top of the league now in December, but if you’re not there at the end of the season, it’s pointless,” said the full-back.
“Every footballer wants to be in the top division – that’s where I was (with Middlesbrough) for four or five years but unfortunately it ended in relegation. That was definitely the low point of my career. You want to be up there against the best and for me the Premier League is the best league in the world.
“Every game’s a big game in the Championship. We’re doing well at the minute, we’re where we want to be, but we’ve got to keep going as there’s still a long way to go.
“We’re confident enough to go into every game and look for the three points – that’s not to say we’re underestimating the opposition and we’re taking them lightly because we don’t. It will be a tough game at Birmingham, but we’re confident enough and believe that if we turn up and play our best we can certainly get the three points.
“In some games we might not have played attacking, flowing football, but we’ve been solid, not looking like we’re going to concede many; that’s something that has pleased the Gaffer a lot.
“This is a different, stronger group to what we’ve had in the last few years. We’ve got a lot of strength in depth. I believe that if we keep our consistency we’ll certainly be up there. You’re not going to go the whole season winning every game, there’s going to be times when you get the defeats –Charlton away and Peterborough home for example – but over the course of the season, if you’re the most consistent team I think you’re going to be on top of the pile. I don’t think the players were too downbeat after the Peterborough loss – we took it on the chin, learnt from it and we’ve come back strong.”
With reference to Lee Clark’s Birmingham side, Taylor added: “They’ve got a lot of problems financially but they’ve still got a good squad. They strengthened in the summer as well, but that’s this league for you, if you get on a bad run you could find yourself at the wrong end of the table.
“Of course there’s still enough time for them to start a push – I remember Sunderland got promoted out of nowhere one year – I just hope they don’t start a run tomorrow.”
