No Fears For Stears
Richard Stearman believes he's been playing some of the best football of his career during the first half of this Wolves season.
And he's determined to maintain those standards over the second phase of the campaign and to play his part in Wolves' cementing their status in the Barclays Premier League.
The Wolverhampton-born defender has pretty much nailed down the right back berth so far with the exception of a spell out injured, and that's despite the attentions of Ronald Zubar, who also impressed in his starts thus far, and Kevin Foley, now doing likewise on the right hand side of midfield.
Ahead of tomorrow's trip to West Ham however, the 22-year-old knows he must remain focused on continuing to improve in order to preserve his place and help the team preserve their current status.
"On a personal level I've been delighted with how my season has gone," he says.
"It's probably the best I've performed in my career so far.
"I'm holding a position down with a Premier League team and that's always been my aim.
"I'm delighted I've been able to do that and hopefully long may it continue.
"But if it is going to continue I can't drop my standards.
"I can't rest on my laurels and just rely on what I've done so far.
"It's always about looking towards the next game and kicking on and that's what I'm going to be trying to do."
The partnership with Kevin down the right hand side has already shown plenty of promise in recent fixtures.
Richard, currently back in the full back role in which he excelled at Leicester after playing much of his football in the centre at Wolves last season, believes it's working well given the pair's knowledge of each other's games.
"Foles is such a good player that he could be anywhere in the team and perform well," he says.
"Being a natural right back himself he knows what I need and what I want and that if I do get forward he can fill in for me.
"I had something similar when I was breaking through at
"It is good from my perspective from a defensive point of view in terms of trying to lock down that right hand side.
"And we can both get forward and if I do that I know Foles will drop in for me no worries.
"He's able to roam a little bit which he enjoys and I think it's been working well."
The next potential link-up between the two comes at the Boleyn Ground at West Ham tomorrow (kick off 1.30pm).
For Richard, who knows the likes of Mark Noble and James Tomkins from
But equally he knows it remains a difficult task.
"These games are ones you look at in the hope of being in with a chance of taking some points," he confirmed.
"It's certainly not going to be an easy task but we're confident we can pick something up over the next few games.
"We've felt throughout the season that we've played well and sometimes not picked up the points we deserved.
"That was certainly the case over the bigger boys over the Christmas period.
"We thought we acquitted ourselves well and were just unfortunate particularly against
"The performances just added to our confidence to be honest.
"Then we managed to get into the winning habit again at Tranmere.
"We knew we had played well over Christmas but hadn't got the results but to get through against Tranmere was a big positive.
Stears continued: "West Ham is always a good place to go and play.
"There's a great atmosphere there with good fans and both of us fighting for our lives.
"It should be an interesting one.
"I know Noble and Tomkins from playing against them in the Championship and
"It will be good to see them but it's the old adage about being mates off the pitch but on it we'll be fighting for our teams."
