October 6 2003

Steve Kember

Steve Kember felt the 2-1 win over Cardiff City was well-deserved and said he was never under any pressure going in to Saturday's game.

He said: "Apart from the wonder goal from Graham Kavanagh I didn't think they caused us too many problems whilst at the other end we created a number of chances through the 90 minutes.

"We should have put more of these away than we actually did, this gave us some anxious minutes at the end.

"The victory was well earned and well deserved as we played some good football throughout. Without being over direct our intention was to get the ball forward as quick as we could.

"Bringing Wayne Routledge and Tommy Black in gave us some good pace and they were able to set things up for the lads up front.

"The match was built up by the local paper as D Day because of our recent form but I have never felt under pressure and was going into this match with a very positive attitude."

He added: "I decided to change the captaincy in this game and gave it to Neil Shipperley, who I thought showed his extra responsibility in his performance and rounded it off nicely with the winning goal.

"I have sympathy for Lennie Lawrence for the fact that he suffered the two sendings off but we have had our fair share of these decisions this season and maybe our fortunes are turning around.

"A real plus for us was the performance of Hayden Mullins against a real threat of theirs in Robert Earnshaw. He's quick and gets lots of goals but Hayden has pace of his own and kept him quiet this afternoon.

"We now have a week off where we can work on things in training and also get players back to full fitness.

"I was pleased with our reaction to the West Ham defeat and with three home games coming up we have a chance to turn our season around."