Baggies won´t leave an ounce in the dressing room

A lot was made of me playing my first game this season against Wigan. But I just took it in my stride. Although people haven’t seen me I’ve been training just as hard as I normally do; I’ve probably worked even harder because I’ve had the time and opportunity to do so. I know I’m a Premier League goalkeeper and it was just a fixture in the Premier League. Business as usual.

In all the years I’ve been a first-team pro this is the first season when I’ve had to sit behind somebody. But I said this after the game on Saturday and I truly believe it: your job doesn’t change. If you’re playing every week your job is to remain in that position by showing what you can do in training and every week when you play. If you’re on the bench, it’s just the same – when you get an opportunity on the pitch or in training, you’re trying to impress. I’d imagine the boss would have a problem as to who he’ll pick to play against Liverpool on Sunday and I’m glad he has.

I was very pleased with the first stop in the double save that I made from Paul Scharner and Olivier Kapo. It’s difficult to deal with balls that come through bodies when you don’t see them until late. The second one was really just an instinctive thing. Kapo looked like he had an easy tap-in and you’ve just got to put what you can between him and the goal. I threw a foot up there and that’s what diverted it. You can’t replicate that sort of thing in training but I was very pleased with it nonetheless.

I was really pleased with the reactions and sharpness I showed to save from Mario Melchiot too. A lot of people say the proof of a good goalkeeper is you make good saves at crucial times. The score was 1-1 and that save set us up for the win, so that was pleasing.

There have been lots of saves that have been memorable over my career. I made one against Christophe Dugarry at St Andrews that won Save of the Season one year in the Premier League. That was a point-blank save. These are the kind of saves that stick in your mind.

I think you do get a similar buzz from a great save as a striker does from scoring. The difference is that as a keeper you don’t go off whooping and hollering all over the pitch. But it’s nice to know in your own head when you do make a save that defies belief. You have a nice feeling inside that you’ve just performed to the top of your ability.

I think you do get a similar buzz from a great save as a striker does from scoring. The difference is that as a keeper you don’t go off whooping and hollering all over the pitch. But it’s nice to know in your own head when you do make a save that defies belief. You have a nice feeling inside that you’ve just performed to the top of your ability.

If I do face Liverpool I’ll be up against the likes of Fernando Torres. As a goalkeeper it is good preparation to go in with an idea of how a striker plays. You can’t totally read players so that you can say in one particular situation they will definitely do one thing but it’s nice to have an idea. Say in one-on-one situations, do they tend to take it round you or try and sit you down and lift it over you?

It’s a good idea to have a knowledge of what strikers tend to do in certain situations. You equip yourself with a bit of information from seeing these players play throughout the season. The rest comes when you’re out on the pitch and you maybe get a feeling about something.

By our own admission we’ve not run any of our fixtures against the top four this season close. It always seems to have been a walk in the park for the top four teams against us. In the game at Anfield in November we were 3-0 down at half-time and it was game over. Liverpool won at a canter. The ingredients have to change. With what’s at stake for the club there can be no excuse for anybody leaving any ounce of effort or endeavour in the changing room.

It’s got to be high-tempo from us. When you close down even world-class players and deny them space – if you do it with a plan and a tactic in mind – then you can make it difficult.

We’ve been getting into the groove recently and it’s probably true to say that if we were halfway through the season we’d have had a good chance of staying up. But it’s a futile exercise. Us and every other team in this division could make a strong case for having another nine, ten, 11, 12 points on top of their target because of hard luck or penalty decisions and so on. But our points total is what it is and it’s there for a reason. That’s all we’ve earned in this division. You’re wasting your time and effort thinking of it in any other way.