Efe Sodje is currently captain of Huddersfield Town. After a slow start to the season the Terriers began to show their true colours and, after thrashing Hull 4-0, the team went to Port Vale at the weekend and gave another of the division's form teams one hell of a beating too, 3-0. It was a memorable day for the Sodje family because Efe's brother Akpo made his Huddersfield debut, as a late substitute. After the game Brian Beard spoke to 'Big brother' about the game, and also 'Little brother's' debut.
Q:A DEBUT FOR YOUR KID BROTHER, SO A GOOD DAY FOR THE FAMILY?
A:Yes, unbelievable. He never really had the opportunity when he was at QPR but I was happy that he came on at the weekend to make it a good day all round.
Q:YOU WON 4-0 AGAINST HULL AND 3-0 AGAINST VALE, WITH TWO CLEAN SHEETS, IS THIS A SIGNIFICANT TIME IN HUDDERSFIELD`S SEASON?
A:For the first four or five games of the season we weren't playing well and the results were not going for us. Then we had a big game against Hull and played really well, now we have come down to Port Vale, who were third in the league, and proved that we are a good side.
Q:YOU HAD SOME GOOD CHANCES IN THE FIRST HALF AND COULD EASILY HAVE LED 3-0 AT THE INTERVAL. WHAT DID THE MANAGER SAY TO YOU AT HALF TIME?
A:He told us we hadn't done badly in the first half but he said to go out, in the second half, and raise the tempo of the game. We did just that and it worked well, and we might have had more than the three goals Pawel Abbott scored for us.
Q:YOU HAVE PLAYED AT THE TOP LEVEL, FOR NIGERIA, AND RECOGNISE TOP QUALITY. HOW DO YOU RATE PAWEL?
A:He is a good player. We're always telling him in training to do things simply. He does extra sessions at the end of training, shooting etc. I am always telling him not to mess about because you can take what you do in training into games and he did that on Saturday. I tell him the more he smashes shots in, during training, the more he will take that into games.
Q:IT WAS A GOOD PERFORMANCE FROM CHRIS BRANDON TOO?
A:Yes, Chris was excellent against Vale. We call him 'The Rat' because he's always scurrying everywhere. The third goal he created was an important goal because if Vale had pulled one back, at 2-0, they were back in the game and everything goes pear-shaped. That third goal finally killed the game off for us.
Q:WHAT EXACTLY HAS THE MANAGER DONE TO BRING ABOUT SUCH A BIG IMPROVEMENT IN RECENT GAMES?
A:We had a bad game against Doncaster so he brought players back into defence and that improved things because if we keep clean sheets then nobody can handle us and that's what we have done.
Q:ARE YOU CONFIDENT OF KEEPING AN UNCHANGED SIDE AND CONTINUING THE IMPROVEMENT?
A:Yes, I'm sure we can keep the momentum going. We had a bit of bad press from the local media but we went out and showed them what we are capable of. It will be interesting to see what they say now.
