Forward Joe Garner spoke to the press after making his return to first-team action in Fleetwood Town’s draw against Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
Garner – who has been out of the squad for some time – has been working hard to build his fitness to get back on the pitch to help the side and he’s managed to make his return when he replaced Ellis Harrison midway through the second half in the six-goal draw.
Here’s what he had to say:
On coming back from injury and using his experience…
“I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work in the gym on my own, but it is what it is, I’m back now. I’ve been injured before and have come back from it in the past, much like now. If there’s anything I can do to help the lads, I’ll make sure I’m out there to help them.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to help the team pick up some points. I speak to the young lads quite a lot, we’ve got a good group of young players here who will have very good careers in the game and it’s good to watch them progress.”
On the result…
“I thought the lads played really well in the first half; there were some big decisions that went against us, a big one came just before half-time, but we’ve come here and played well and went in at the break 3-1 up. It probably should have been three-nil, but we’ve ended up coming away with a point. In the first half, we were much the better team and then decisions happened which didn’t help us.
“There were positives from the game, but we were down after the final whistle. We’ve spoken about the game, and we are all just moving on now to Tuesday as we have a massive game coming up. They come quickly these fixtures so we will just get on with it and go again.”
On the busy schedule ahead…
“We’ve got some big games coming up and those are the games you would want to play in as a young player. We all want to go and face these big clubs, pick up points, and play really well – I’m sure that’s what we will do.
“We can only control what goes on whilst on the pitch on a Saturday or a Tuesday. We will work hard throughout the week and the gaffer will set us up to how he wants us to play to win games and that’s all we can do.”