And he’s hoping his flying form will help City step up for the crunch games that lie ahead in the Championship.
"It's another big game,” said Sproule on the visit of league leaders Wolves. “It's a bit like last season when the big games started to come at this stage and you find they keep on coming till the end of the season. We're back to the bread and butter.
"So far they've been the best team in the league. They've got a strong squad, they've got a good manager. I'm sure Wolves, like a lot of other clubs will be thinking they should be in the Premier League.”
City were one of the victims of Wolves' devastating early season form, slumping to a 2-0 defeat at Molineux. Mick McCarthy’s side have struggled in recent games though and Sproule believes there could be a reversal of fortunes for the Robins at Ashton Gate.
“We went to their place and let ourselves down a little bit,” he said. “But we've found a bit of form of late ourselves and we're quietly confident. No matter whether you're sitting 19th or top of the league you can lose a game. That's the Championship for you.”
One of the reasons for City’s rejuvenation is Johnson’s switch to 4-3-3, a formation the Northern Irishman is fond of, although he’s yet to score this season.
He said: "The gaffer's tinkered a wee bit with the formation and it's probably a bit more like my Hibs days the way I'm playing because there's three up front.
"Goals will come. As long as you're either assisting or setting them up you're playing your part. Now I've been moved further up the field hopefully sometime maybe Nicky (Maynard) can square me one and I'll tap it in. I'm not worried as long as we keep on winning.
"We gave a Premier League team a run for it and that's given the team a lot of confidence,” he added. "The onus is on me now to just worry about the full-back. My main job as I've always done is to make the full-back worry about me. At the moment the full-backs are always on the back foot so long may that continue.”
The longer it continues the shorter Sproule’s hamstrings will become. "I knew about it (on Wednesday morning) when I went to get out of my bed. Belhadj is a cracking player and I put him on the back foot going one way, but I can assure you he put me on the back foot going the other way.
“That's why we want to get back to the play-offs this season to get that crack again to get to the Premier League because it would be wonderful to bring that kind of opposition to Ashton Gate every week.”
In the Pompey replay Johnson opted to leave the strength and power of Dele Adebola and Stern John on the bench and plump for the pace of Nicky Maynard and Peter Styvar alongside Sproule in attack.
A race between Maynard and Sproule for the next tap-in is an exciting contest. "Nicky is fairly pacey,” said Sproule. “But I'd put the mortgage on me."
No comments:
Post a Comment