Midfielder Lewis Warrington spoke to the media after Fleetwood Town made it three games unbeaten in League One on Saturday and looked over his loan from Everton and how it’s benefited him and his career.
The phrase ever-present has been thrown around a bit over the last couple of years, but the 20-year-old on loan from the Premier League side has hardly missed a game as he’s picked up 38 appearances in all competitions after joining the Cods in the back end of August last year.
He has managed to spring a partnership with captain Josh Vela, as they both look to defend the back line, as well as other midfielders like Brendan Wiredu and Scott Robertson, and thinks that he has progressed beyond expectations under the tutelage of head coach Scott Brown and his staff.
“It’s been the perfect loan up to now; I’ve learned loads of the gaffer and his staff, and I’ve gotten better as a player in terms of a positional sense and what he wants from me. Odd things that keeping it simple is sometimes the best option, as you can play it quick and then find new spaces to get on to the ball again,” said Lewis.
“My whole game has improved; I’ve enjoyed the games more than I did at Tranmere, obviously it’s more ‘ball in the air’ in League Two and it was going over my head a little bit too much so here, we try to get it down and play – even against the big teams – so I feel it’s been beneficial for me.
“Times flown, I’ve done well as I was in League Two last year, so I went into pre-season fit and made my debut here in the cup against Fleetwood, so it’s been good. The journey I’ve been on comes down to how hard I've worked behind the scenes so it’s good to see it paying off. I wanted to come out on loan, and it’s been the best decision for me.”
With the ways he has helped Brown and the staff here at Fleetwood this season, he has been at the centre of the action and has seen the benefits of this as Town are currently on a three-game unbeaten streak in the league after drawing against Port Vale before beating promotion chasing Derby County and fellow mid-table side Lincoln City.
After the win against the Imps, Lewis said that it felt ‘good to get another win’ as it was good for the confidence of the squad, but yet, thought that the Fleetwood have more than enough ability in the squad to win those types of games consistently.
The 20-year-old added: “We expect to win those kinds of games really as we are a good side. We’ve just found ourselves on the wrong side of some results this season, but we are managing to play well and pick up some points now, and are looking above us in the table now rather than below us.
“We’ve got a good group of players here so we can dominate games like that, we went to Derby last week and passed them off the park as well, so we know we are capable of it, we just need to keep going each week now and need to keep pushing the standards.
“The whole week has been buzzing really after the Derby result, you can see it in training when we are in, everyone is fighting for each other and the mood around the camp is always positive. We didn’t go to Derby and think ‘these are a big team’, se went to Derby expecting to win and we did, that shows the players we’ve got – we’re fearless really.”
With eight games left on his loan contract until he heads back to Premier League side Everton in the summer, the future is unknown for Warrington, but he has said he will fight until the end to make sure the Cods finish as high as possible at the end of the season – that’s great to hear, Lewis!