CHRIS LAKEY Darren Huckerby admits it's a fine balancing act trying to score and create goals while adding defensive duties to his game. City's flying winger has been under orders to help out left back Adam Drury, but says tracking back doesn't come easily.

CHRIS LAKEY

Darren Huckerby admits it's a fine balancing act trying to score and create goals while adding defensive duties to his game.

City's flying winger has been under orders to help out left back Adam Drury, but says tracking back doesn't come easily.

“I'll be honest with you, it's difficult for me,” he said. “It is not something I do naturally.

“I have got to try and find a balance where I try to do my defensive work but it doesn't stop my forward play. It is no good to me being a defensive left midfielder because my game is about taking people on and getting crosses in.

“I need to find a happy medium where I can try and help Adam out where I can, but also do my work going forward.”

Huckerby, who fired in a brace of goals in the FA Cup third-round win at Tamworth last weekend, pointed to the statistics collected by ProZone to back his case that he is putting in the effort.

“We have got ProZone now and it shows I run the most in the club,” he said. “I have heard people say I am lazy - but look at the stats.”

Those two goals put Huckerby on five for the season, ending a run of 15 games without hitting the back of the net.

“It's been coming for the last few weeks,” he said. “The Palace game I was unlucky not to get a couple of goals, but more than anything we have got to start winning at home, we have got to start putting pressure on other teams and especially with the transfer window still open we have to try and attract other good players to the club.

“We have to try and win every game, even away games, but home games are more important, definitely. You need to win your home games and try and nick things away from home so home games are massive, no doubt about it. But we are going to be playing some good teams so it is going to be very difficult.”

Grant has urged Huckerby to get into the penalty area more, but the stats show that he is the one who puts the crosses in for the likes of Robert Earnshaw and Dion Dublin.

“Obviously I want to add more goals to my game,” he said. “The stats don't lie - I do tend to put a lot of balls into the box, so luckily enough Dion and Earnie can finish so hopefully we can get more goals that way.”

“It's not really a worry - sometimes people have got to understand that a lot of games I have two or three men on me,” he said. “It's been the same ever since I have been here, but I am not worried about it.”