West Brom may face the prospect of being without either of their first choice strikers for the visit to Stamford Bridge today but former Ireland international Steven Reid is still upbeat about the club pushing on from their current position in the league and qualifying for Europe.
Shane Long remains a doubt for this afternoon’s game due to ankle ligament damage sustained last time out while Romelu Lukaku is ineligible.
But Reid believes that the club, who are already on the brink of matching their best tally of wins in a Premier League season, can be fearless as they head to London given what their current league position and recent return to form.
“Our aim is just to finish as high as possible,” says the 31-year-old, “hopefully break the record for the number of points in the Premier League and improve on last season, which I think we will do.
“But the top six is still a possibility. We’ve got nothing to lose now and hopefully we can have a big push for the end of the season. It’s not out of the question if we can go on a similar run to the start of the season.
“Our first 13 games of the season were unbelievable and if we can do that again who knows where we can finish? If we can match the start we will finish in European places. I’ve got no doubt about that.”
While Long could miss out this afternoon, Rob Elliott looks certain to continue in goal for Newcastle who will be without the injured Tim Krul for anything up to a month.
Hamstring problem
Anthony Pilkington, meanwhile, is set to start on the bench again for Norwich after having come on in the closing stages of last week’s win against Everton without any problems. The midfielder missed the opportunity to make his Ireland debut against Poland last month because of a hamstring problem but has recovered more quickly than expected and could yet feature in Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad for the qualifiers against Sweden and Austria.
Damien Duff has admitted to experiencing considerable discomfort whenever he features in the media. In an interview with Fulham’s magazine, Fultime, the Dubliner says: “I don’t like watching myself on television talking and if I see an interview I did in a paper, then I can’t even read it. Some players love it, but I hate it. To be honest, I don’t think I have anything of interest to say.”
Duff says that he is proud of his international career but that his priority for the moment is to keep playing at club level.
“I’m proud of that (his achievement of 100 caps for Ireland), but it’s probably something that I’ll reflect upon in more detail when I’ve retired from the game totally I’m not planning on finishing my career any time soon, though.
“It’s been a nice journey, with lots of ups and downs – but that’s football. I’ve had a great time; football is the love of my life, so I’m a very lucky man.
“The current campaign is my 16th full season in professional football. When you start out, you don’t look too far ahead. While I want to play for a bit longer, I am at that stage where I’m starting to think about what happens next.”
“When I’m finished, God knows what I’ll do.”
