Boro boy Bennett back to his best (From The Northern Echo)

Boro boy Bennett back to his best

8:00am Saturday 11th February 2012 in Sport By Paul Fraser, Chief Football Writer

AFTER making an instant impression on his return to the Middlesbrough team, Joe Bennett has convinced Tony Mowbray he is ready to recapture his best.

A significant dip in form for Boro led to the young full-back losing his place for the first FA Cup tie with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light almost two weeks ago.

But he was back somewhere approaching his best again in Wednesday night's replay, when he not only kept Seb Larsson quiet but he caused problems for full-back Phil Bardsley along the way.

The 21-year-old, crowned the North-East Football Writers' Young Player of the Year for 2011 last Sunday, has enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence under Mowbray.

The boss said: "I'm not sure if the impact of being left out helped him. We know he has that talent. We have seen it. It was important that we could see it against a Premier League team and with so many watching.

"It was a reminder to him that he is not a certain in the team every week. He has to perform to stay in there.

"The thing with Joe is that he never really had any competition for left-back. He expected to see his name on the teamsheet every week, so a bit of complacency crept in. His performances levelled off a little bit."

Bennett, who has hopes of forcing his way back in to the England Under-21s squad for the European Championships and Team GB for the Olympics, has also been mature enough to accept the manager's decision like an experienced pro.

"It's done me the world of good. The manager was quick to tell me that it's not a bad thing when you are left out of the team and it has helped," said Bennett.

"I am just glad to be back and get my chance again. I enjoyed the Sunderland game, just disappointed to lose. We have to concentrate on the Championship now."

Bennett was one of eight academy graduates to face Sunderland in midweek, but Mowbray does not want to get caught up too much on the number of youngsters coming through.

Speaking ahead of today's trip to Ipswich, he said: "To have players from Teesside is fantastic, but they have to be good enough to do that.

"We also have to win football matches with talented players. Hopefully that will be full of young players from here. I have only been here a year, Dave Parnaby has been here producing players for a lot of years.

"You can't have a team just full of academy players. The philosophy here has been great and I see no reason why that will change despite the introduction of the Elite Player Performance Plan criteria coming in pretty soon. I am sure we will continue to produce players whatever category we will fall in to."

* Leeds United's visit to the Riverside will now take place on Sunday, March 11 at 12.15 and will be screened live on BBC.