Dave Jones hailed the part played by comeback hero Stephen McPhail in Michael Chopra’s four-goal display against Derby after the former Leeds player returned from suspension to orchestrate the 6-1 humbling of Derby County at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Jones said: “Stevie was involved in just about everything tonight. Just because he’s not a kicker or a head butter, he’s not liked by certain people. But he’s a top, top player.”
But Jones wants to make sure this win isn’t a flash in the pan and that his team have put their recent poor form behind them.
He said: “I worked overtime on the line, chivvying and shouting at my players to get into position. It’s a good thing I wasn’t playing or there’d be a few finger matrks round some people’s necks.”
While he was exasperated with Jay Bothroyd’s late arrival for the second half, he believes his team showed their true colours last night.
“Tonight’s performance was well overdue. We are capable of being a force in this division. I’d have been happy with 2-1 or 3-1. I know what it feels like to be on the end of a real beating.
“From our point of view, you don’t get results like that often, so we’ll enjoy it while we can. I’ll enjoy it tonight, my staff will enjoy it tonight, but it’s back to the grindstone tomorrow. We are going good game, bad game, and we need consistency.
“There’s a problem in that a lot of people seem to want change. They need to remember that when we sell a £5million player, we get one in for £200,000, then it takes time to turn the new guy into a £5million player. That’s what happened with Roger Johnson. We take a step back by selling our best player, and then we move on. This club is work in progress. I hear people say change it, get rid of this or that player, but they should step back and think about what’s going on at this football club.”
On four goal-hero Michael Chopra Jones said: “His movement was superb. But I want to point out that we didn’t pay £4million for him. We paid a lot, an awful lot for this club – and now he’s repaying us with goals.”
Jones expects injured Ross McCormack to be back in first team contention after the international break.
“We’ll be stronger when we get him back,” he said, “and we also hope to have Kevin McNaughton and Warren Feeney in action soon.”
