Clarkie Hails Mental Strength

Ciaran Clark has hailed the mental spirit of the team for effectively having to cope with beating Burnley twice.

In his after match interview on the Official Site Clark admitted the whole team were devastated when Burnley grabbed their last minute equiliser to push the game into extra time, but he thinks it shows the mental strength of the team that they could put that blow behind them and make another mark on the game.

'It was a tough game, especially when it went into extra time. They scored and the initial reaction was being gutted. I thought we did really well (after that), pulled together as a team and showed some great spirit. We did really well in the end, we showed character to bounce back from that setback at the end.'

It's hard to disagree, Burnley were on top and were piling terrific pressure on when they did finally snatch the goal, it would've been so easy to our let our heads drop and just aim for the pot luck of penalties instead of taking any risks in the additional 30 minutes, but we clawed it back and came out with a deserved win in the end.

Clarkie also had special praise for Downing and the elder statesman of the team, Friddy P.

'Stewart's goal was amazing, I was delighted. Brad's made some great saves and kept us in the game.'

The draw for the quarters will be interesting now, a good Cup run would definitely be welcomed given 'our' start to the season.

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