Milan's Nocerino happy to silence doubters

03 December 2011 19:16

AC Milan midfielder Antonio Nocerino said he was happy to have silenced the doubters following a starring role in Friday's 2-0 win at Genoa that, temporarily at least, sent the champions top.

Many eyebrows were raised when Milan signed Nocerino, an Italy international, from Palermo on transfer deadline day in August.

But he has proved a useful memeber of the squad and has been an almost ever present this season, appearing in more games than anyone else, alongside right-back Ignazio Abate.

He scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Parma at the end of October and added another goal against Genoa.

"In the beginning there were a fair few people who were skeptical towards me but it's great because things change quickly," Nocerino told Sky.

"But I always knew that I had to talk on the pitch and the chitter-chatter would fly away with the wind.

"The coaching staff has always shown faith in me and when I arrived I always said that judgements have to be coherent and players need to be given time to express themselves. Now it's easy to speak well of me."

The 26-year-old from Naples also spoke out about the crowd trouble that caused the Genoa game to be disrupted for 10 minutes.

"It's disappointing to see such things and I would never take a child to a game," he said.

"Unfortunately it's a situation that will never change, it's the mentality of people that needs to change.

"You can't risk taking a child to a ground where there's a risk he would get hurt or be afraid."

Source: AFP