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McDermott in-depth interview

Posted on: Sat 20 Mar 2010
Brian, Middlesbrough away, one of your longest trips, how much does a journey like that take out of your players?
Not a lot, we're flying! It's good, the Chairman has given us the opportunity to fly, it's an hour on the plane, very nice.

Middlesbrough are a good outfit.
Yes, we know all about them, they're a good side. Gordon Strachan has brought in some players from Scotland that we know quite well. We do a good amount of scouting in Scotland, we have two scouts up there. They're a Premiership club in all but name.

You'll be hoping to take your superb home form into an away game, are you confident you can do that?
I'm confident full stop. I'm confident with the players and staff we've got. I'm looking forward to it, it's a big club and we want to go there and put on a good performance.

Middlesbrough, Leicester and West Brom in succession so three big games?
All big clubs, that's what this league is all about. But we're a big club, we want to take on the best and do ourselves justice.

You had a good win on Tuesday and is it fair to say a different type of performance?
There's no way we're going to beat teams 3-0 and 4-0 every week. Some of our football has been fantastic and yes Tuesday was a different game. QPR were set up a certain way, it was a physical game, they made it difficult and played their part, but we kept going. Did we play flowing, passing football like we want to? No, but we showed resilience, character and desire to get the result. It was very satisfying, and given all the talk about how QPR beat us earlier in the season, there was massive satisfaction.

What's your take on the Matt Mills incident now?
You can see what's happened, Matt has come out and apologised. He rang me in the morning, he hadn't slept all night and he knows he did wrong. He's held his hands up and was genuinely, genuinely upset. He knows it was unacceptable and the fans know he has been very genuine. We've dealt with it, he's accepted that and I'm sure it will make him stronger and a better person. Hopefully it'll be a good thing for him in the long term.

His form must help him in that respect.
He's got a cause now, he feels he needs to win the fans over again after what happened and I'm sure he'll do that. He's got their respect after the way he made a public apology, he wore his heart on his sleeve and I admire that. The last thing you want is something like that to happen. He's learned from it and that's most important. We dealt with it as well as we could as a club and I hope the fans back him to the hilt.

There's no better way to move on than three points at Middlesbrough.
That's the key. We had a fantastic result against QPR and let's try to win again.

Jay Tabb said to the press this week how beneficial it is for the team that you have so much knowledge of the opposition, who is helping you with that at the moment in terms of scouting?
Steve Shorey is out doing the games, he's a very experienced man and has been in the game a long time. Nick Hammond goes to games, I go to games and was at a game last night. We've got 10 or 11 scouts out travelling around and we will do for the forseeable future.

Jay has been excellent since coming into the team, a fans' favourite.
He's a favourite around the place, he's a great guy. He's got a big heart, he's only 5'6" but he's got a massive presence, he just does things right. He's really good in the air and is a very popular character.

You've had two clean sheets in the last two games, that's the first time this season, how impressed have you been with the defence?
I've been impressed with the whole team. You don't get clean sheets unless everyone is working hard. Look back to the game the other night, Jimmy Kebe has got back to clear a ball that was going for a corner and put it out for a throw in, he'd run the full length of the pitch. He's doing his work, Jobi on the other side, it's the whole team.

Any new injury worries?
No, everybody is fine.



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