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18 january 2002
I'm back.

At Last, I'm back.

It's been half a season but I'm finally feeling like a footballer again. The ankle feels better every day and I've had a few games lately as you might of heard. Last week I got 45mins against a Charlton Reserve side and felt pretty good, we won 2-1 and it was great to get invovled again.

Last Saturday most people will have seen me get 30 mins against my local rivals Burnley, this felt great and although not totally match fit yet and a few bad touches I got a great reception and loved every minute, just wish I'd connected with the left footed shot better, that would have been a dream.

On Monday the reserves were taught a lesson by West Ham reserves, we were beaten 4-0 by a strong Hammers side, a few stars of the future in that team believe me. I got 60 mins but was hoping for 90, was a bit gutted to come off really as I started the second half much brighter than I ended the first. Then on Wednesday I had a run out in a friendly against a Rushden and Diamonds reserves/first team outfit. We had a couple of trialists playing and a few people out of position and it showed, we were 4-1 down at half time and the game ended that way after we got it together more in the second half. Lionel scored a fantastic free kick for us. My massive plus point though was that I played the full 90 and got some good runs and crosses in during the second half. My body is really stiff and sore at the moment but that's hopefully just muscles being woken up for the first time in 5 months. Being involved in 4 games in a week is really tough after being out 5 months but it's a great test for the ankle and it seems to have stood up to it.

A couple of players I think deserve a mention while I've been playing in the ressies, youngsters Alex Tapp (centre mid) and Sam Okikiolu (right sided defender) have been very impressive, both in my opinion will make the grade in football.

The Burnley game all in all was uneventful and I thought if anyone had deserved it we did, but on the plus side it was another clean sheet. The two games we have in-hand now are massively important and we have to take a minimum of 4 points from them to keep us in touch with the play-offs.

On Tuesday I was gutted for the boys, a home tie against United would have been superb , a real test for us, but unfortunately Boro came out on top 2-0. I was disappointed not to be involved in the squad and watched the events of the FA cup on TV. It sounded as though their first goal was borderline offside but I'm sure I'll get the lads telling me.

On the injury front, Willo, Blackers and Kjetil are all now running and close to training again, Lionel is fully fit again after a slight twist to his knee which ruled him out of Saturday and Tuesdays games.

Unfortunately Andreas Lund is seriously considering retirement after his knee op, a massive cruciate ligament injury which he has failed to overcome, he's a great guy and I wish him all the very best, he didn't deserve to go out this way as he's a real worker and honest as they come.

Birmingham tomorrow (Saturday) and we have Kelvin and Jermaine available again, the defence has looked solid now for a while and these two are a great bonus for us, competition for places is really hotting up now. We need a victory there and I reckon we might do the double over them again just like last season. With everyone behind the team we'll do everything we can to bring the 3 points home from St Andrews.

Great to be back (even though I ache all over)!

Gareth.

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