CHRIS LAKEY New City boss Glenn Roeder gave another peep into the man behind the ice-cool exterior yesterday when he gave his views on nerves, singling out players for criticism - and taking cheap shots at previous managers.

CHRIS LAKEY

New City boss Glenn Roeder gave another peep into the man behind the ice-cool exterior yesterday when he gave his views on nerves, singling out players for criticism - and taking cheap shots at previous managers.

The new Canaries boss rarely moved from his touchline vantage point during Sunday's frantic East Anglian derby and believes his lack of histrionics helps players.

"I don't go out to be relaxed, that's just how I am as a person," said Roeder. "People said I was like that as a player, I was always calm. The alternative is to be nervous and worried. I convinced myself and I know for a fact that fear and worry is useless and that is what pleased me very much when we had a chat at half-time - and that's what we do. We only had a talk at half-time and just reminded them about a few things.

"I think I have learned this as well - players definitely look at you all the time, even though you don't realise. They are looking to see how the manger is reacting, maybe what he is saying, but just his general demeanour around the place. If I felt my manager was nervous it wouldn't help the situation, so I am only being myself."

Darren Huckerby's late red card for a studs high tackle on Jonathan Walters could easily have earned the player a public dressing down - but not in the House of Roeder.

"One thing I will never do, ever - and you can go back through all your newspaper cuttings - I will never take a player to task publicly," Roeder added.

"I hated playing for managers like that. I had no respect for them whatever because it is a cheap shot. But if something is wrong, if I feel something is wrong, I will take them to task in my office.

"I think it is a cop-out for managers who continually criticise their players in public. I don't think you earn the respect that way at all. I will criticise them collectively, as a group, if I am unhappy with something, but to start naming individuals - that wouldn't be for me. I don't see the top managers doing that anyway."

Roeder's rules also exclude unnecessary digs at predecessors, particularly relating to the state of a squad a manager has inherited.

He said: "I'm always conscious that when a new manager comes to a club he always tries to focus on how unfit the players are and I think he forgets: the manager has just lost his job, he sees that and it is not a nice thing to read about yourself and I just think it is poor, poor for new managers to come in and back-handedly give the last manager a slap.

"Peter Grant was one of those coaches, managers who was very forward in his thinking, I can see that around the place. Peter has left a mark in terms of his organisation, which is very good, so I wouldn't be saying that the players are unfit. But that doesn't mean to say all of us can't get fitter, including myself."