Purse: 'The gaffer's been brilliant for us'

Last updated : 13 October 2006 By Michael Morris

"To be honest, I think the gaffer has taken a little bit of a risk with the way he's done things," said Purse. "He brought in a lot of quality in the summer rather than quantity. There's a risk when you do that.

"But maybe if he'd gone out and bought 10 other players not as good as the ones he's brought in then we might not be in the position we are. I'd much rather be where I am with the squad we've got than have people waiting in the wings who are not as good.

"The gaffer's been brilliant for us. He's probably the main reason why we've managed to do so well.

"He's pretty much got the side he wants now. I don't think there's too many players left from before he came in.

"So he's got his squad and he's done it on a really tight budget. He has done a fantastic job, there's no denying it. Now we've got to keep going and pay him back."

Purse will lead City out at Selhurst Park tomorrow and after an uncomfortable week of speculation for City fans Dave Jones will be in the dug out. It appears that West Brom are finalising a deal with Hibs and Tony Mowbray for the SPL man to take up the helm at The Hawthorns. We'll never know how serious W.B.A.'s interest in Dave Jones was or how likely he was to go, but I'm grateful he's still with us.

"None of that speculation about West Brom really bothered the squad," Purse continued. "It's well documented that he's happy down here and the most important people in football are your family. As long as they are happy in Cardiff, I can't see the gaffer going anywhere."

"It doesn't matter what other people say or any mind games they want to play," he said. "You've just got to go out there and prove yourself on the pitch."

Responding to the comments made by Steve Bruce, manager of Birmingham City, Purse said

"We know the season's not over after 10 games, but the confidence here is massive. We know how well we're playing.

"I think if you look over the last five games, I think we've scored something like 17 goals. That is brilliant for us, but we've just got to keep our feet on the ground.

"We've got to carry on the way we're going and it doesn't matter what anyone else says around the Championship.

"We've got to keep doing what we're doing and hopefully we can prove them wrong. We've already proved what we can do this season by tearing teams apart.

"Fair enough, Wolves were down to 10 men, but everyone was saying how tough a game that was going to be. The way we scored all four of our goals was the way we've been doing things so far this season. We know what we're capable of. It's been no surprise to us."

Purse hopes the mini break has done the team some good. He appreciates there is a tough few weeks coming up with 4 of the next six games away. We go to Palace, Norwich, Sunderland and Colchester and have home games against Southampton and Derby.

"We've got to take as much rest and as many breaks as we can," he said. "We need that because we've got such a small squad. So the break came at a good time for us really. I think the next one is not until the end of January.

"If you look at the fixtures coming up, you'll see it's going to be a tough month for us. The three away games are going to be a tough test.

"Whether the break has affected our momentum or not, I suppose will be shown by the result at Palace. We've got to start again and make sure we carry on from where we left off."