I didn't want to be the rebel who was bottom of the class, so I worked hard. They wanted me to stay on for A-Levels, but football came calling - that was my real love.

I think every player enjoys praise and I have to work extremely hard on the training ground to bring my game together.

When you take a lot of stick you want to ram it down people's throats.

I always dedicate my goals to my mum. I lost her a couple of years ago. She was my biggest supporter and is always with me.

Even with the quality of players that we have, they're an extremely hard side to break down and once they get on top of you, you find it difficult to stem the flow of attacks.

I was always pretty good at school, but a lot of it was memorising, maybe cheating off your mates, stuff that gets you through.

As far as I see it you just can't give Messi space in the dangerous areas - we have to close him down, get tight and give him as little room as we can because if you don't, he can destroy you.