Reggie Lambe on his first goal for the club
New signing Reggie Lambe admitted that his first appearance for the club was almost everything he could have hoped for following his first half finish which helped his side to earn a point on a tough day on the south coast.
“It’s always good to score on your debut and it was made even better because we knew we needed an early goal,” he said. “We got that but unfortunately we couldn’t see it through to take all three points.
“The way the goal came is something we worked on in training, particularly from the goal kick. We wanted to use that as a way to get behind them and we knew we wanted to catch them on the break. That’s what we did and we scored from it.”
A huge factor in the club’s first goal of the campaign was a neat touch from Shaun Miller which sent Lambe on his way.
“It was a brilliant touch from him,” he agreed. “I wanted to go straight to him for the celebration to say thank you but Nicky [Adams] gripped me and we all ended up celebrating where we were. It was a great touch from him to get me through in the first place though.
“In that kind of situation you don’t really have as much time as you would want. I was thinking about going over the keeper, but he jumped up, so I just toe-poked it under him. It went between his legs and hit the back of the net, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
“I’ve had a few tweets from the fans and it’s good to know I have their support. We haven’t had a home pre-season friendly so it’ll be good to get out there and let them see what type of player I am. I’m looking forward to that.”
On playing close to 70 minutes with ten men, on one of the hottest days of the year, he said: “When we went down to ten men they started to get more possession and they tried to wear us down. We all stuck together as a team and it’s a shame we didn’t manage to keep them out.
“It was good that we stayed together and I think we got the draw we deserved. It was an example of sticking together at its finest. We did that as Cassius Camps and that day has definitely helped us. We went through difficult moments in the game and credit to everyone because it’s a brilliant result for us in the circumstances.
“I think we knew we’d be good as a team going into the season. If we keep playing for each other like this we should do well.
“As for the heat, I should be used to playing in that, but it was very hot. It’s always difficult, whether you’re used to it or not, but it was even harder with us having just the ten men. It does drain you when it’s like that.”
And the appearance of injured striker Jabo Ibehre in the away end at full time gave the nippy wide man the chance to lay down a challenge having set himself off and running in the club scoring charts.
“We’ve got Jabo [Ibehre] to come back but I did point out to him after the game that I’m club top scorer at the moment,” he revealed. “He just told me to get lost.
“I hope I can get a few more goals and I think I’ll do that. Hopefully others will be pitching in as well because that means we’ll be pushing on as a team.”
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