Naylor stresses importance of victory

Elvin King

RICHARD Naylor today stressed the importance of yesterday's Coca-Cola Championship 1-0 victory at Pride Park, Derby.

Although not in the party that travelled to the Midlands to complete the double over the Rams, the club captain is still very much part of the squad.

And he insists the Blues still have plenty to play for this season, while acknowledging the importance of keeping in touch with the promotion pack.

"History confirms that teams going into the New Year in form have a big part to play in the battle for promotion," he said.

"This is wherever they are in the table - within reason - at the time.

"And as we are within touching distance of the top six going into 2009 we have plenty to play for.”

Town fans were generally magnificent at Pride Park, again overlooking the efforts of a few wishing to see changes in the way Town are managed.

And Naylor says that Blues supporters have a part to play in the run-in to the end of the season.

He went on: “If the fans want to see the best from us then we need them behind us.

"The negative stuff we have been reading recently has not helped the lads, particularly the younger ones.

"If we had nothing to play for it would be different. But we need our fans to ignore the bad press and keep giving us a lift."

Naylor says that with 30 players in the first team squad there can be problems with morale.

"If they don't feel part of the team it can be frustrating and (I feel) some recent comments were taken out of context," said Naylor.

"There is little that those in the team can help those currently out of favour. It is natural to be down when not being picked.

"When you are selected it is important to give 110 per cent and hope fans will respond to that.

"Our professional pride hurts when we are not winning games.

"But at the end of the day we all want to do well for this club, playing firstly for ourselves, then for the manager and staff and thirdly for our supporters."