Chris Lakey Matty Pattison says he wants to let his boots will do the talking and put his much-publicised drink-driving offence behind him. “That's what the boss and everyone tells me,” said Pattison, who was fined and banned from the road this week.

Chris Lakey

Matty Pattison says he wants to let his boots will do the talking and put his much-publicised drink-driving offence behind him.

“That's what the boss and everyone tells me,” said Pattison, who was fined and banned from the road this week.

“The one way to put it all behind you is with the football and just obviously playing well - and hopefully I will keep doing that.

“It has been a difficult time, but I'm just trying to keep it all together with the football and that's going good.

“I'm loving it - it's just what I want to do, so I'll just concentrate on that now.”

Pattison admitted there was an element of truth in reports that manager Glenn Roeder had banned his players from going out clubbing.

“Obviously he wants us all to be professional,” he said. “He doesn't want us all out on the drink and anything like that - just be together and concentrate on staying up and keeping the club in the Championship and building on it next season.”

Pattison, 21, was speaking in public for the first time since the events of the morning of March 16, when he was caught at City's Colney training centre - fours hours after leaving a city nightclub.

His arrest made national newspaper headlines, and while manager Glenn Roeder was furious at the antics of his young player, he insisted he would stand by him.

Pattison was included in the starting line-up for the home win over Colchester United the following weekend - and was greeted with a huge round of applause from fans and hugs from players and management when he left the field after just under an hour.

It was a reception Pattison admits helped him overcome his misdemeanour.

“I have had good support from the club and the players - the players have been great, the boss has been great and all the background staff as well, so it's been good,” he said. “The fans have been great as well - you can tell by that ovation when I came off against Colchester. It was obviously a big moment for me and it just shows how good the fans have been about it - it's been great support.”

The stigma will take some time to shake off, but Pattison sees a positive from what happened to him.

“Obviously I made a mistake and I am going to learn from that mistake,” he said. “I've been punished for it and I have to learn by it.

“I am a bit disappointed in (the national media coverage), but when you play football and you're in the public eye stuff like that is going to happen so you have to take it on the chin - it is a bit disappointing.”

Work is back on the agenda after Monday's court appearance with preparations for Saturday's home game against Burnley - and with relegation still a threat after the controversial defeat at Bristol City on Saturday which has left City just three points clear of the drop zone.

But while referee Andy D'Urso's mistakenly-awarded free-kick - which led to Bristol's winning goal in time added on - infuriated the Carrow Road camp, the performance has galvanised Pattison's view that the season will end in safety.

“It was a sickener,” he said. “All the lads were devastated afterwards because all the work was undone by a bad decision. It was a bad decision - I was shocked, I couldn't believe it. I thought he had given the free-kick to us, but we just have to pick ourselves up for Saturday now.

“It will be a big game, but we are not going to change our style or anything, we are just going to keep playing football and hopefully do the same as we did to Colchester.”

City will be looking over their shoulders at other results, but they won't be alone.

“It's unbelievable how tight it is in just that little bit of the league,” said Pattison. “Even at the top really it's everything still to play for, for everyone, so it's just keep getting points on the board.

“We have too much in the squad for that (relegation). There is too much quality, as was shown by what we did at Bristol at the weekend. They're top of the league and we totally outplayed them.

“Hopefully we can just put away our chances because we missed a few at the weekend. Another day they go in - it was just unlucky.”