Gabby Thanks Friedel For Win

Gabby Agbonlahor has paid tribute to Brad Friedel's professionalism and mental strength given how he put his nightmare mistake behind him in our match against Chelsea.

Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Gabby was full of praise for the 'elder Statesman' (pun intended) as he put the first half goal goal behind him and helped keep us in the game at points with vital blocks.

If you look at the stats, Chelsea had more shots on target than we managed in total and whilst quite a few were straight at Brad you can only stop what's put towards you as a Goalie and he did that well and helped keep us in the fight for all 3 points.

Gabby is thankful he did, commenting that other, less experienced keepers could've let the 'bounce' get to them and it's tantamount to Big Brad's character.

'You get those freaky goals when the ball bounces up, but Brad made up for it with all the other saves he made.

'He wasn't going to let one mistake affect him. He came back and made some superb saves.'

Finishing with:

'That shows the great character he is.'

Big Brad has won quite a few of us over this season, although if you follow the debates on the forum even those who thought maybe he'd had his day and sadly it was downhill from here always conceded it was possible the lack of a stable defence had more to do with it.

This season he seems to have come on leaps and bounds, and seemed more up for it even prior to the arrival of Collins and Dunne.

There seems to be a good understanding between them, and we certainly look the better for it in defence and when we are under the cosh.

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