Fleetwood Town midfielder and captain Josh Vela spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's Sky Bet League One match against Bolton Wanderers at Highbury Stadium.
Vela – who came through the ranks at Bolton Wanderers – has featured in all 18 league games so far this season, and will be looking to gain all three points from the clash this weekend to help push the Cods up towards a play-off place.
The playmaker joined Fleetwood at the start of the season and has been a vital part of the team ever since, making a large impact upon his arrival.
Here’s what Josh had to say ahead of the game…
“Everyone’s in a good place and were on a decent run of form. We’ve obviously just come off the back of a 2-2 draw at Bristol, with the first half, we were good. In the second half, not so good.
“But we managed to salvage a point late on, which felt like a win in the end really. But we take that and move on this week against Bolton.
“We’re near the midway point now we know the bigger teams in the league, obviously you’ve got the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich and Plymouth in this league.
“They [Plymouth] are at the top of the league at the minute, but like you say, I think there is a few more teams. We’re not far off, six points off the playoffs so if we can manage to get a few wins together and move up, you never know what can happen in this league.
“We’ve been to Peterborough and have got a positive result there, obviously they’re going to be fighting for promotion. We beat Plymouth at home and they’re top of the tree at the minute, and we’ve had a draw at Portsmouth, so we can go toe-to-toe with the big ones.
“We know what were capable of so we’ve just got to believe that again this weekend. Obviously, Bolton are going to be right up there as well; they’re a team who are going to be wanting to get into the Championship, so it’s going to be another good test for us.”
On the appointment to be the Club’s captain…
“Yeah I’ve loved it! Obviously I’ve been named captain of the club, and it’s a big privilege of mine and I’m loving every minute of it.
“I was asked in Croatia, and I couldn’t say no to the opportunity. I wasn’t going to say no anyway, but it was a bit of a surprise, but I’ve got to take that in my stride and be a leader of the team.
“You can’t say no to him [Town’s boss, Scott Brown]. He was the captain at Celtic so you can only learn off him and as I said, I’ll take it in my stride and try be a leader of the group."
On his time spent growing up in and around Bolton Wanderers…
“I’ve seen everything at Bolton. I was 8-year-old when I first joined to the Club, and I worked my way to the first team. I went from 6 months not getting paid, to then gaining promotion from League One, so I’ve had some really good times; and obviously not so good times.
“It was a challenging time obviously not just for the players but the staff and the people who work at the club. It was 24 hours away from going bust and not having a Bolton Wanderers anymore.
“It’s a club that’s close to my heart and I look back on my times there with good memories. I made some great friends that are still friends now so I’m looking forward to coming against them this weekend.
“Like I said they’re on the way back up now, I think. I loved my time at Bolton, I nearly made 200 appearances for them, and I always look out for their results; but not this weekend as I’ll be looking out for a Fleetwood’s results.”