Midfielder Kelvin Etuhu took a step closer to making his first senior appearance for the club when completed 75 minutes in the Tuesday afternoon reserve game at Gateshead.
Speaking after full time in the 4-0 victory, he said: “It was good to be out there because I needed the minutes. I’ve been out through injury for just over four weeks now so it was always going to be good to be back on the pitch.
“It’s been a frustrating period for me because I’d had a decent pre-season. I picked up the injury just before the Blackburn game and it was tough to miss out on the first game of the season. It was hard to take but I got my head round it quickly and got on with the rehab work I had to do.
“My aim in the Gateshead game was to be professional and do everything right. Obviously, it was also about getting the cobwebs off and that means you have to start with the basics. Overall I feel like it was a good run-out for me.”
“I think it’s fair to say I just want to get on with it now,” he confirmed. “I’ve done a lot of hard work and now it’s about doing what I can to hopefully get selected to play. I’ll train hard, as I always do, and I’m sure my time will come.
“The lads have been playing some really good football and I definitely want to be part of it. The gaffer is showing everybody the type of free-flowing football he wants to play and that’s good for everybody.
“The squad has a lot of very capable midfielders so there’s good competition for starting places already. It makes you a better player when you’ve got those types of players around you.”
“I feel much better in myself now that I’ve had the reserve game,” he concluded. “You can train hard every day but it doesn’t change the fact that you need minutes on the pitch to get you up to match speed.
“I really appreciate the fact that the coaching staff got the game arranged to help me to do that. As a team we came away with some good goals and a good result, so it was a pleasing day for everyone.”
Click HERE to watch an interview with Kelvin Etuhu on iFollow United now.