Injuries, clean sheets and the future

Despite rumours of interest from Spuds in the last few days, Shay Given has hoped to close the door on such talk, at least for the time being, as he gave the latest update on how he sees the club at the moment. With Villa, came Marlon Harewood and he proved to be the focus of a fair amount of Shaymus`s patter. He said:

"What happened to me at Upton Park a couple of seasons ago is what happens in football. You get challenges in football all the time. Marlon Harewood didn`t try to puncture my bowel. It was just one of those things.

I think the most important thing is that we are going to Fulham on Sunday with more belief in ourselves as a team and with the confidence that back-to- back wins has given us. In fact, the way we played on Monday night people could have been excused for thinking we were in the position Aston Villa are in at the top of the Premier League.

But we are still in a bit of trouble and we have to keep working hard in a bid to move up that League table. We got a good result at Fulham last season, but Roy Hodgson has done a great job for them and we know it will be difficult for us on Sunday. But if we can play like we did against Aston Villa we are confident that we will get some sort of result."

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