Bruce Delighted With Confident Win

Steve Bruce has declared himself delighted with the result and manner of the Plymouth win.

The win saw Blues hit 40 points in the league and move them above Preston to go top of the table.

Speaking on the official site following the match, he said:

‘This game always astounds me.

‘We started off like a train against Southampton and ended up being 3-0 down.

‘Plymouth started really well for the first ten or 12 minutes today and Maik has had to pull off a great save to stop them.

‘But then we had two or three chances and scored them and the game’s all over.

‘I was very, very pleased especially in the second half with some of the football we played and the entertainment we gave and we deserved to score more.

‘There was a 15 minute spell in the second half when the buzz came back to the crowd, which I haven’t detected for a long, long time, so that’s pleasing as well.

‘I wanted a response after getting beaten and today I thought they were very good.

‘Sometimes in this game, the job of manager is very difficult with some of the decisions you have to make.

‘Over the past six to eight weeks, Martin Taylor has probably played the best he has personally since he’s been at the club, but I just felt that Matt Upson is an England centre back and he’s a naturally left hand sided.

‘He’s worked extremely hard, as you can see from his physical condition you wouldn’t think he’s been away for eight or nine months and I was delighted to see him start.

‘With Fabrice Muamba, although he’s been terrific, he’s only a boy at 18.

‘I just detected that there were signs he was a bit jaded against Southampton, so it was nice that I could bring in Nafti for his experience and he did particularly well.

‘It’s nice when you look at the table when you’re top of the pile but it’s only the beginning of December and we’ve got five long months to go.

‘The Christmas period is vital now because games come thick and fast but you can see the improvement from when we started in August to where we are now is huge and I do believe we’ll get better.’