Town manager Paul Jewell wants his centre-halves to score six or seven goals each this season. Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith both had a number of chances from corners during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Hull but failed to take them, the Irish international coming closest when he hit the bar just before the break.

Jewell said: “We had 10 corners and we hit the bar with one of them. I think centre-halves go up for every freekick and corner and I think we should be getting six or seven goals from both centre-halves every season.

“It’s an area where I think they get away with murder, at every club. We’re entitled to quality balls in, you work all week on them, and they can win or lose you games.

“And against Hull, if we’d have taken a couple of those opportunities from corners where we hit the bar or headed over, it might have been a different story.”

The Blues boss says Town can’t just depend on Michael Chopra scoring, the rest of the side have to pitch in: “Chopra made some clever runs and he didn’t get a lot of help against Hull.

“He will score goals in this league, however, we can’t just rely on Chopra to score the goals, there have got to be more people in the team taking the responsibility to score.”

Jewell says Delaney was fine despite the ankle injury he suffered at Bristol City: “He wasn’t a risk. He trained with the physio on Thursday and trained again on Friday. He obviously got a kick on his ankle and it’s not ideal playing two left-sided centre-halves together.

“It’s obviously an area where we’re light and it’s an area where we’re desperately trying to strengthen.”

Skipper Grant Leadbitter also felt the Blues suffered from not taking their opportunities: “If you don’t take your chances you end up getting punished.”

The 25-year-old says he has already spoken with manager Paul Jewell about a possible new contract with further talks this week: “I am happy here. I still think we are a team going places.”

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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