DANN STILL STUNNED BY RAPID RISE.

Byline: ANDY WALKER 

BLUES' unearthed gem Scott Dann still has to pinch himself over his swift rise from League One mediocrity to a Premier League regular. Having overcome early season niggles, Dann has quickly become an important part of Alex McLeish's back-line.

Alongside fellow top flight rookie Roger Johnson, the Scouser has helped make Blues' defence watertight.

Yet playing at venues such as the Emirates and Anfield has been a far cry from where Dann was two years ago.

After coming through the Walsall ranks to impress and lead the Saddlers to promotion from League Two, the 22-year-old was snapped up by Coventry before joining McLeish's newly-promoted Blues during the summer.

And Dann admits that he often looks back on just how far he has come in a short space of time.

"You've got to pinch yourself sometimes from going from playing for Walsall in League Two in the space of two years to being in the Premier League," admitted the twice-capped England Under-21 international. "It's good for me, I've had to work hard to get here and there's still a lot of hard work to do.

"With every game that goes by now I'm feeling fitter and stronger, I'm just trying to improve on every performance.

I'm just excited by the chance to play in every game and I want to keep on improving.

"In the Premier League it's more about concentration and you've got be on your mettle for the whole of the 90 minutes. If you give someone half a chance in this league it's more than likely going to be a goal."

During his move from the nearby Sky Blues, his former boss Chris Coleman said that he felt that Dann should have delayed his move to the Premier League and continued his education in the Championship. However Dann says that he still has no regrets that he never took the Coventry manager's advice. "I think when you get a chance you've just got to take it because it might not come round again, you never know."