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Bruce hails Sutton impact

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Steve Bruce has praised new signing Chris Sutton for giving ‘everyone at the club a huge lift’ after seeing Blues thrash fellow relegation candidates Portsmouth 5-0 in their biggest ever Premiership win.

The striker, who signed on a free transfer from Celtic earlier this month, has looked impressive in the two games he has played for the club so far.

And boss Bruce hopes Sutton’s form, along with the return from injury of key players such as David Dunn, Muzzy Izzet and Mikael Forssell, will help lift the club out of the relegation zone.

Bruce said: ‘The addition of Chris has given everyone at the club a huge lift.

‘He was fantastic at Charlton last week and has played another major part against Portsmouth.

‘You can see why he has been transferred for all those millions of pounds during his career.

‘You can see why he has played at the top level for so long and why he has won championships in England and Scotland.

‘Gordon Strachan was right when he told me Chris was as good as any centre-forward I would work with. After working with him for two weeks I can understand why he said that.’

He added: ‘An important thing for us is that all the big players like Mario Melchiot, David Dunn, Muzzy Izzet and Mikael Forssell are back fit again.

‘It is no magic wand that we have waved. It is just that those type of quality players have become available again.

‘If you looked at our bench today it was really strong and that makes a massive difference.

‘The good thing is that Dunn and Forssell look physically fit again.

‘We didn’t think it was going to be this long, although that is the story of our season.

‘We have given ourselves a huge task and probably need to go on the same sort of unbeaten run at home as we did last.

‘But I am convinced that if our players can stay fit then we can get out of trouble.

‘We had an horrific home record with just one point from the first seven games but we’ve started to put that right and need to keep it going.

‘This was a massive result, physiologically and in every possible way and now we have to build on it.’

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