Vital win can be a boost to maintain home form

As wins go, Monday’s victory over Aston Villa was by far the most important of the season, thus far.

The performance was by no means perfect, in fact, it was almost poor, but it was all about getting the most valuable of three points.

It caps a solid Christmas period for City, and leaves us with 20 points from 19 matches – perfectly on course for survival.

For me, there are two players, both of whom have come in from the cold, who deserve massive credit for their recent form: Ryan Bennett and Diss’ own Declan Rudd.

Both have waited a long time for their chance and against Villa, Bennett was immense at the back and Rudd looks to be growing into a fine ‘keeper.

What impressed me most about Bennett was not his aerial power or strength, but his ability to spray the ball around the pitch and set City on the attack.

As we head into January, we now have a chance to strengthen our ranks. At the time of writing this, City are on the verge of acquiring Steven Naismith, a very astute signing.

He will offer City something different in the number 10 role and hopefully provide support to the likes of Wes Hoolahan and Nathan Redmond who have carried the burden of being City’s attacking threat.

It’s a big question of what else we need, a centre back? A right back? Another striker? I’m sure a lot of names will be mentioned over the coming weeks, but as I said a few weeks back, City need players to come in and make an impact – not those who will take time to bed in – and I’m sure Naismith will do just that.

This weekend Southampton visit Carrow Road and while their victory against Arsenal was impressive, they are certainly a team we should be looking to beat, especially at home.

There’s no doubt we’ll have to step things up but with eight points from four home games and our recent good form, we’ve got a great chance of securing a third win in four.