Matthew Upson has praised his team-mates for "defending from the front" against Chelsea.
Speaking to WHUTV, the seven-times capped England centre-back said the visitors more than made a game of it at Stamford Bridge on Saturday and - but for Joe Cole's goal which some felt was offside - could have taken a deserved point. "I don't think we purposefully came out to defend," he said. "If you come to Chelsea you have to do a lot of defending."
That said, Upson admitted the team found it difficult going forward against a resolute home rearguard, marshalled by John Terry. "We didn't have enough cutting edge and guile in and around the final third to really make ourselves contenders for the three points. But looking at it we probably could have gone away with a point in the end. We definitely deserved that.
"A few people have said [the goal] was tight, so it is very difficult. It is just a disappointing goal to give away given how solid we were as a team.
We defended well from the front, we worked hard and limited them to very few chances really - so it was a disappointing goal to give away."
The bearded No6 is the only outfield player at the club to have played every minute of the Barclays Premier League campaign to date and he won much acclaim alongside Danny Gabbidon on Saturday. Although Didier Drogba was equally impressive for the hosts, it was clear he was not going to have things all his own way - hardly getting a shot at Robert Green's goal all game.
"The back five including Greeny have been really solid the last five or six games," the 28-year-old Upson added. "It is an important foundation that the team needs to be built on and I think it is doing well at the moment. We have just got to carry that on and keep the stability, and look forward to the next game."
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