Trevor: Support Magnificent

Trevor Brooking says that the supporters were magnificent on Tuesday against Bradford - and spurred the team on to victory.

"I can't emphasise enough what an influence the atmosphere from the fans had; whatever you say it is a difficult period and Tuesday was important.

"I spoke to a Premiership manager about something in the week and he kept repeating our crowd of 30,000 because Chelsea played the same night in the Champions' League and got 23,000.

"He just said what an unbelievable figure that was - and they played a big part because we needed them.

"They conveyed to the players that they wanted them to do well and the players were very excited about the atmosphere, and it was just a taste for them of what we can produce if we can get things going in the right direction.

"The atmosphere was absolutely imperative and as a player you know that if you don't perform it can gradually evaporate.

"Fortunately, although the score line was only 1-0, there were plenty of opportunities to make it more convincing.

"Although, to balance it out, you have to say there were one or two little escapes which would have been cruel, and it could have been about 5-2.

"We have got to try and eradicate them, but the fact is, the players gave everything and were certainly pretty drained at the end.

"More than anything I think the fans saw that the players wanted to get the result for the club - and themselves, of course - and that is all you can ask for to start with."

Trevor is keen to emphasise the importance of the work ethic, however, and he adds:

"Funnily enough their best chance was just before half time when a defender of theirs ran forward and the thing you have to match in this league is the enthusiasm.

"Bradford had one youngster there who is apparently on two or three hundred pounds a week and yet he ran and ran and ran - and they will do that for fun in this league.

"The defender ran and he didn't get the ball back - but he just kept running and when the ball was knocked in to a striker who tried to lay it off to his striking partner he hit it too heavily; it didn't go where it was intended, but it actually went right into the path of this defender who had kept running for the sake of running.

"Because it was a defender, and as luck would have it for us, he missed the chance, but for all the play we had had, the fantastic goal, and the chances that we missed, we could have gone in at half time 1-1 and everyone would have had to start from scratch again.

"But that was all about enthusiasm and there was a slight misunderstanding with one of our strikers who thought he was going to stop when he didn't get the ball.

"But he kept running, and then, because there wasn't a shout, no one from the back realised he was still running and he picked up a misplaced pass but was clear.

"It is a combination of situations but all it means is you have to match the enthusiasm and effort that all these sides will put in - otherwise you will get undone.

"So it was a much better couple of days whilst the difficulty of the current situation remains and we are still in limbo to a certain extent - but Tuesday is no good if we don't keep playing consistently."