Ahead of tomorrow night’s televised clash against Brighton and Hove Albion, Ian Holloway has backed his opposite number and talked about the threat that will be Darren Bent in the game.
Speaking to News Shopper ahead of the game in his pre match press conference, Ollie said of the former Liverpool defender that he backed him to get it right, but we were out to heap more pressure on him tomorrow.
‘My Hyypia is a fantastic man, fantastic coach – he was a fantastic player – wonderful record, but welcome to management. Everything goes with the English game and it seems if you don’t win instantly you’ll be written about. But it’s better than not being written about I suppose. It’s just the way the game’s going.’
With Hyypia’s job under threat as the regular promotion chasers find themselves battling away at the bottom of the table this season, Holloway admits it’s become open season with managers and the media ttention that gets blown out of ‘all proportion’ with people giving their views and whilst views make the game go round it doesn’t always mean they are right.
‘Everybody’s got opinions and without those opinions we haven’t got such a wonderful game, have we? It’s not easy, we’ve all accumulated records year after year of actually doing it for real. To do it from your armchair is not the same. I can’t talk about how Brighton feel. I’m going to go there and try and beat ’em, I’m going to go there and try and put him under even more pressure, but I’m under my own pressure to achieve things that I want to achieve. I’ll be judged the same as he will, over and over again, as long as you’re a football manager.’
Holloway goes on to say that he feels sometimes it’s just too short sighted in the game now, questioning whether one win suddenly makes you a good manager and one loss a bad one, as what’s been achieved before doesn’t seem to count for anything when you’re in the moment.
With it all about pressure it will come down to how handles it best, both sides have had games and runs they’d rather forget, but Holloway knows we will have to be on it especially with them having former England international striker Darren Bent on loan with them at the minute.
‘There’s one dangerman who springs to mind, ain’t there. Darren Bent. Apparently he scores when he’s asleep. They’ve done well to get him, it shows their ambition. What we’ve gotta do is make sure that our team can bounce back (Boro). that’s what we’re looking to do.’
And Holloway knows part of that is making sure that we keep him quiet and don’t give him the chances he seems to thrive on.
‘I think it’ll be a really tough game but it’s one I’m looking forward to.’
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Holloway Backs Hyypia
