Brooker's Bristol City quest

STEVE Brooker is adopting a single-minded approach in his quest for regular first team football at Bristol City.

Not content to sit on the substitutes' bench, the 27-year-old striker is hell-bent on forcing his way into manager Gary Johnson's starting XI.

And having scored twice in as many games already this season, Brooker is making a compelling case for inclusion in Saturday's Sky-televised Championship showdown with Derby County at Ashton Gate (5.20pm).

Linked with a possible move to Cheltenham Town earlier this summer, Brooker was expected to play second fiddle to City's other strikers after failing to break into the squad towards the end of last term. But the former Port Vale man, who spent two months on loan at Cheltenham earlier this year, says he is only interested in playing for City.

He declared: "Last year was last year. The idea of going to Cheltenham was to get fit to come back and play for Bristol City.

"Of course, I'm going to be linked with them, but it was just a stage of my career where I needed to go somewhere to get fit, and I was grateful to Cheltenham for giving me the opportunity.

"But it was all about coming back to Bristol and getting my place back in the team. I want to be playing first-team football in the Championship."

Fully recovered from the chronic knee problem which kept him on the sidelines for much of the past two seasons, Brooker is determined to push himself up the pecking order.

Preferred to Lee Trundle at Blackpool last weekend, Brooker came off the bench to volley a dramatic last-gasp winner. Promoted to the starting line-up for Tuesday's Carling Cup first-round tie with Peterborough United, the striker scored another late goal, this time with his head, to deliver a 2-1 success at Ashton Gate.

He has now set his sights on challenging record signing Nicky Maynard and experienced target man Dele Adebola for a starting berth.

"I feel I've done well enough to be in the first-team squad," claimed Brooker.

"It's all about individuals. You look at yourself rather than everyone else and, when you get the nod, you try and take your chance.

"Obviously I don't pick the team and I've had to bide my time, but I'd like to think I've done well enough to be considered."

He added: "My injury problems are behind me and I just want to draw a line under that. I've come through a full pre-season and, apart from a three-week hamstring problem, have been fit for eight months. That's as good as anyone else in the squad."