MELLOW man David Wright still hates losing but admits he has chilled out with age and the loss of his dad to cancer.

Derek Davis

MELLOW man David Wright still hates losing but admits he has chilled out with age and the loss of his dad to cancer.

The Blues full back, equally comfortable on the left or right, has also been helping the younger Town players not to get too wound up by all that is going on around them.

Wright's father had been a huge influence in his career, but died aged 53 from cancer and that hit the player hard but in away it has helped him be more objective after matches.

He said: “I am my own worse critic but I'm not as bad as I used to be.

“I used to sit through games and go through everything but since my dad passed away, and he was a big, big part of my life, I have put things in perspective.

“I do still sit and analyse my game but I don't beat myself up about it.”

The former Crewe and Wigan defender is using the hard lessons he has learned about introspection to help his younger team-mates.

He said: “Certain boys do, and always will do, go through the papers - look at all the scores, and get worried about what other people are thinking. I used to and it took me a long time to realise the only two people you have to keep happy are the manager and yourself.

“If you are happy with your own performance then nine times out of 10 the manager will be.

“A lot of players get caught up with what is going on around them instead of concentrating on their own game.”

That experience is helping Wright to anticipate Town's poor start can soon be changed.

He said: “The Championship is a very strong league and very competitive. Look at Norwich beating Wolves 5-2 it shows what can happen in this division. That would not happen in the Premier League. Tottenham would not beat Manchester United 5-2 for example.”

And he believes courage is the key to turning things around at Portman Road.

He said: “We need to keep doing the right things. We need to have the courage to do the right things.

“People talk about courage meaning flying into a hard tackle, or putting your head in where it hurts and yeah, that takes courage but sometimes it can take more courage to go and get the ball, put your foot on it and pop it around.

“Tuesday the boys started doing that and hopefully that was a springboard for us to keep going.”

The loss of his father has led to Wright quietly doing a lot of charity work for cancer, with the funds he raises split between the East Anglian Children's Hospice (EACH) and the Lilac Centre in the north west of Eng that looked after his dad.

Wright said: “The charity work is going really well. We raised more than £1,000 on the golf day.

“It is something away from football. The cancer charities mean a lot to me personally. It is good to be able to put something back in for these hospices and hospitals.

“The work they all do is amazing and the nurses get paid a pittance really but do the most incredible things.

“It may only be £1,000 here or there, which in the big scheme may not change anything but it may be able to do something somewhere.

“It might may someone's life a little more comfortable.”

And that sort of thing tends to make even the most competitive person just a little more mellow.