After his accomplished debut at the weekend, no-one in the ground was left doubting the ability of Marcos Painter.
And now, no-one will be doubting his commitment to the cause either.
The words of the Curdworth-born defender, the offspring of a family of Bluenoses, speak for themselves:
‘It was a fantastic experience to make my Premiership debut, I’m still on a high, especially as we got the result we needed,’ he told the Birmingham Mail. ‘I don’t know what the gaffer is going to do in the next game, whether he will stick with me or not, but I hope so.
‘It might go in my favour that we won and kept a clean sheet. If he does, then I will try not to let him or the team down. The way I play, I give it my all and that won’t change. I will work even harder in training to make sure I stay in his thoughts.
‘I don’t want to see another left-back join the club now. I’m determined that I can convince him I’m able to do a job there regularly.
‘It hasn’t been nice to see us struggle and fall as low as we have in the league. When I knew I would be playing on Saturday, of course I was aware of how important it was and there might have been extra pressure on me.
‘But it didn’t really affect me, I just went out there and tried to play my normal game. Being a Blues fan, and with all my family and friends supporting the club, I might have had an extra little edge but, to be fair, all the lads were superb and gave it everything as well.
‘I definitely believe that if we can carry on playing like that, we can get out of the situation we are in. There are enough games left and we do have some quality players.’
It is nice to see some commitment from ‘JT’, as he has been nicknamed by his team-mates due to his striking resemblance to Chelsea’s John Terry, particularly at a time when some players (not mentioning any names, but if I describe them as a tall Czech central midfielder you’ll know who I mean) talk about leaving the club because we’re in a relegation battle.
Hopefully this will be the start of an extended run in the team for Painter who, if he keeps up his initial standards, should be able to stay and blossom at the club for years to come.
