Loan rumours are wide of the mark

There were a few rumours about me going out on loan to Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest last week but there´s no truth in them – I don’t think that anything will happen. I don’t think the gaffer will let anyone leave at the moment. I came on in the second half against Portsmouth and I enjoyed that. Plus, we have had some suspensions and injuries so he wants to keep hold of everyone.

Have I considered going out on loan? Well I have thought about it. I haven’t been here that long but sometimes you think it could be a good idea in order to try and get games. But while the club is trying to establish itself in the top-flight then the gaffer will want all the players here. Anyway, I´d get a lot more satisfaction from breaking into this team than going out on loan.

I played again last Tuesday night against Chelsea´s reserves and scored the winner so I hope that will give me a look-in over coming weeks. It was nice to score the winner and I enjoyed the game. It was a funny one because the ref had an absolute nightmare, he made some absolutely outrageous decisions but overall it was good and we won 3-2.

We had a great result against Aston Villa at the weekend. Villa have had a fantastic season and they rested a few players for their UEFA Cup game against CSKA Moscow on Thursday so they are probably focusing on consolidating where they are in the league more than anything. I don’t really blame them.

Their strengths are easy to pick out – mostly it´s their pace going forward. Villa have a great manager in Martin O´Neill and they are very solid, very hard-working and they have got lots of good players. I´d put money on them staying in the top four, come the end of the season. As for pace – I think we matched them - Villa are outstanding but we had enough to deal with them.

We´ve got Bolton at the Reebok Stadium this weekend and after that we face a trip to Everton. We haven’t won away from home all season and the longer that goes on the more it gets to you. I think all the lads want to put it to bed now, we have got enough time before the end of the season to put that right though and I hope we can sort it out. Our last two away games have seen a marked improvement in our performances but we haven’t come away with the points we´d have liked but, with a bit of luck, we can put it all together and come away with a result.