Midfielder Kelvin Etuhu picked up the Peter Jackson the Jeweller man-of-the-match award for an excellent performance on Tuesday night as he helped his side to a 2-1 victory over Port Vale.
Speaking about the award, he said: “When the fans cheered when my name was called out it felt good.
“It’s nice to have the appreciation from the supporters. I just want to be doing that every week so that I keep the consistency.
“I’ve not really had a consistent time in midfield since I’ve been here, so it’s just nice to have a few consecutive games in that position. Hopefully I’ll get stronger and stronger as each game goes by.
“The manager has shown some belief in me and he doesn’t let me slack at all. He’s on me every minute of the day, but that’s doing a lot of good for me in terms of progressing.
“I’m happy to be playing in my position. I was at right back for the Northampton game because the manager wanted me to do a job there. It was completely new for me but if that’s what I’m asked then I’ll always do what I can for the team.”
With the run of starts in his favoured position under his belt, he added: “The main thing for me at the moment is that I’m trying to keep fit, and I’m taking my recovery seriously with that in mind.
“I’m doing a lot of work away from the field to keep myself fit so that I can make the games. When the manager believes in you it makes you want to play for him and, with his coaching staff, they’re demanding high standards all the time. That keeps you on your toes and you want to make sure you’re available.
“There’s a lot more attention to detail with recovery and to what we’re doing in training from the management staff. They’ve tapered the training down correctly so that we’re all at it on a game day. That’s helped a lot.”
“We’ve got a good set of lads and we’re all working hard every day,” he continued. “There’s good spirit in the dressing room so it’s a case of making sure you work hard for the fans, for your team mates and for the manager.
“We’re playing at a high tempo and we’re looking to get the ball forward quickly. We can see that coming into the games from the work we’re doing on the training pitch. We know we just have to keep doing the basics well and it’ll keep coming good for us.”
A feature of his game on Tuesday night was the number of times he worked the keeper as he dropped behind the front line to find gaps around the edge of the box.
“I thought the deflection in the first half was going in!” he told us. “That was unlucky not to creep in, but I thought I’d just keep trying my luck after that.
“In the end it was a massive win because we spoke before the Cheltenham game about the fact we had three big games coming up. The manager said that he wanted three points from each of them, so we’re on track to do that with the back-to-back wins.
“Crewe will be a tough game but we’re looking to make it three wins from three. There’s no room for complacency so we’ll just make sure we keep working hard.
“The fans are loyal so it’s nice to play well for them. It’s early days but we’ve still got a lot of improving to do as a team, so we’ll just be staying together and doing as well as we can.”
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