Burley praise for 'strong' Saints (From Daily Echo)

Burley praise for 'strong' Saints

6:51am Monday 21st January 2008 in

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George Burley hopes Saints have finally found some consistency after their draw at Plymouth made it five away games without defeat.

In a season where inconsistency has been rife at Saints, it's a comforting statistic - even if four of the games have only been draws.

The only win was right at the start of that away run - a 2-1 success at Leicester at the beginning of December.

Saints took the lead at Home Park but were pegged back by Paul Sturrock's side just after half time in tough conditions on a heavy pitch.

Burley said: "I knew we had to be strong and weather the storm, but that's five away games undefeated and we're looking a lot stronger.

"It was a battling point.

"It was a game where conditions were hard - I never thought it was going to be a classic.

"We started brightly and moved the ball in those conditions very well but were later put under a lot of pressure by Plymouth.

"We had to roll our sleeves up second half against two big strikers who were a handful for our two centre halves."

Burley made a couple of changes in defence with fit-again Darren Powell replacing Wayne Thomas at centre half and Alexander Ostlund starting his first game since October with Jermaine Wright playing in the centre of midfield to try and restore some balance to the side.

"I didn't think we passed it particularly well second half but you've got to keep working at it," said Burley.

Full story: See today's Daily Echo.