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Should Wanderers avoid flirting with relegation this season, Phil Parkinson is in little doubt as to the basis of their success.
The Whites’ miserly tally of 36 goals conceded lay the foundation for their path back to the Championship, and they will need to be equally steadfast if they are to stay there this time around.
Tuesday night saw their first clean sheet of the season and Parkinson feels if the defence and Mark Howard, currently the man in possession of the starting spot in goal, can maintain their performance levels they can thrive in the second tier.
“Mark didn’t have many saves to make,” he said after the goalless draw at Birmingham. “It was more about dealing with the balls being played forward quickly by them. Their keeper launching it forward as quickly as he did was a threat but all in all we coped well.
“You have to give Mark credit for that save (from Jacques Maghoma’s deflected shot), he reacted very well.
“He’ll be pleased with the clean sheet, as we all are because to be successful at any level you have to have a team that is capable of keeping clean sheets.
“If you concede one there has to be that resilience to make sure you don’t concede another and that was what disappointed us in the first half against Leeds, it was an untypical type of performance from us.
“But when he was called upon Mark stood up and performed well and he’s another player who I think is growing, I really do, I thought he was excellent.”
Ahead of Howard, Parkinson may have some thinking to do once David Wheater is fit enough to resume first-team duties.
Last term the Whites manager hit upon a highly-effective back three, adding Dorian Dervite to Wheater and Mark Beevers, the pairing that performed so admirably throughout the course of that promotion-winning campaign.
And with the emergence of youngster Reece Burke, as well as his fellow West Ham loanee Josh Cullen in midfield, there may be a selection headache in store for Parkinson.
“Reece and Josh have settled in well even though they’ve had no pre-season games with the lads,” he said. “I have no doubts about them. I thought we coped well, we stood strong as a team when the crowd really got behind them and I’m very very pleased with a point. I’d love to have got all three but we’ll take the point.”
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The Whites’ miserly tally of 36 goals conceded lay the foundation for their path back to the Championship, and they will need to be equally steadfast if they are to stay there this time around.
Tuesday night saw their first clean sheet of the season and Parkinson feels if the defence and Mark Howard, currently the man in possession of the starting spot in goal, can maintain their performance levels they can thrive in the second tier.
“Mark didn’t have many saves to make,” he said after the goalless draw at Birmingham. “It was more about dealing with the balls being played forward quickly by them. Their keeper launching it forward as quickly as he did was a threat but all in all we coped well.
“You have to give Mark credit for that save (from Jacques Maghoma’s deflected shot), he reacted very well.
“He’ll be pleased with the clean sheet, as we all are because to be successful at any level you have to have a team that is capable of keeping clean sheets.
“If you concede one there has to be that resilience to make sure you don’t concede another and that was what disappointed us in the first half against Leeds, it was an untypical type of performance from us.
“But when he was called upon Mark stood up and performed well and he’s another player who I think is growing, I really do, I thought he was excellent.”
Ahead of Howard, Parkinson may have some thinking to do once David Wheater is fit enough to resume first-team duties.
Last term the Whites manager hit upon a highly-effective back three, adding Dorian Dervite to Wheater and Mark Beevers, the pairing that performed so admirably throughout the course of that promotion-winning campaign.
And with the emergence of youngster Reece Burke, as well as his fellow West Ham loanee Josh Cullen in midfield, there may be a selection headache in store for Parkinson.
“Reece and Josh have settled in well even though they’ve had no pre-season games with the lads,” he said. “I have no doubts about them. I thought we coped well, we stood strong as a team when the crowd really got behind them and I’m very very pleased with a point. I’d love to have got all three but we’ll take the point.”
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