City victory can be catalyst for survival - Ben Mee

Defender Ben Mee is hopeful that victory over champions Manchester City will be the catalyst for further growth over the final stretch of the season.
Ben Mee celebrates at full time with fellow City graduate Kieran TrippierBen Mee celebrates at full time with fellow City graduate Kieran Trippier
Ben Mee celebrates at full time with fellow City graduate Kieran Trippier

The 25-year-old, who made his only appearance for City in a 2-1 League Cup defeat to West Brom at the Hawthorns four-and-a-half years ago, insists the performance and result at Turf Moor has set the standard for the remaining nine fixtures of the term.

After George Boyd scored a stunning 61st minute winner against Manuel Pellegrini’s men, Mee said: “It’s the best performance definitely, for me. The way the lads worked, the atmosphere was brilliant, it was a special night for everyone. If we carry on playing like that towards the end of the season we’re going to pick up many points.

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“Of course we can build on this. We can take a lot of confidence from it and hopefully this is a turning point with many more wins to come. It gives us loads of confidence.

Ben Mee praised the work rate of striker Ashley BarnesBen Mee praised the work rate of striker Ashley Barnes
Ben Mee praised the work rate of striker Ashley Barnes

“We know we can beat anybody, especially at the Turf, and if we get the atmosphere like we did on Saturday in every game coming up at home it’s something to look forward to.”

While the Clarets hadn’t kept a clean sheet in 14 games in all competitions, City had scored in every game on their travels in the Premier League since February last year. That, for Mee, made the outcome against his former employers even more pleasing.

“It’s brilliant and it’s been a long time coming,” he said. “The lads worked extremely hard and to get a clean sheet against a team like that bodes well. We’ve beaten the best team in the league and kept a clean sheet, so there’s no reason we can’t do that against other top teams.”

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Mee added: “The final whistle was great. It was a fantastic result and nice to get a win against them. The result a couple of weeks ago (against Chelsea) was brilliant and now we’ve had another great result, but we look to the next games now and we need to make sure we get some more great results.”

The full back, who reacted to the late ‘heart in mouth’ penalty incident involving Pablo Zabaleta by stating “it was never a penalty, I didn’t touch him”, insists the Clarets will now go to St Mary’s brimming with confidence as they look to add to their solitary away win against Southampton.

“We’ve taken four points off the champions, we’re going to go into it with confidence and we managed to get the win here against them so there’s no reason we can’t do that again,” he said. “There’s great character in the squad and the staff around us. We just work hard and try to get the results we need to do, which hopefully we will do.”

Ashley Barnes was the match-winner against the Saints in December, and Mee believes his team-mate excelled in his new role on the left at the weekend. After Dyche partnered Sam Vokes and Danny Ings in his starting XI for the first time in nearly a year, Mee said: “We take it as it comes. The gaffer makes the decisions and that’s how it is. We’ve got a lot of respect for him. He makes the decision and we all get behind it and work really hard to make it happen out there.

“He (Barnes) was really honest and worked really hard. It was a tough night for him tracking Zabaleta back and forth and helping me out, but he did a great job and we worked well as a team.”