Striker Jamie Proctor on an all action debut
Striker Jamie Proctor went through the full range of emotions at Brisbane Road on Saturday as he made his debut and bagged his first goal for the club, only to be harshly dismissed with just over 15 minutes left to play.We spoke to him about his unforgettable experience just after the Tuesday morning training session this week.
“It was a mixed bag of emotions on Saturday,” he admitted. “It started off well and the team were in a good position. Personally it was going well - I’d got the goal then a few minutes of madness and funny decisions made it a frustrating one in the end. I’m just glad the boys managed to see it out and we came away with the win.
“Obviously it was superb to score. When a ball like the one from Nicky [Adams] comes into the box then goes past, like it did, you can stand on your heels and think the chance has gone. George [Waring] managed to get his head onto it and the keeper made a good save. I was on my toes and thankfully I was there to put it in the back of the net.
“It’s always nice to score at the end where the travelling fans are and, like I said when I signed, my main aim is to score goals. However, I think strikers nowadays have got to contribute more than that.
“You’ve got a big role to play for the team in terms of getting hold of the ball and bringing people into play, as well as defending from the front. I’d like to think I did that on Saturday.”
The delight at scoring the match winner was tempered by the early dismissal, but he revealed that it was the first booking which had caused him the most frustration.
“The first yellow card was incredible in my opinion,” he told us. “I thought it was a foul on me. Looking back on the second one I can understand why it’s gone against me but, again, I actually thought it was a foul on me.
“Initially I thought their lad was going to be sent off when I saw the ref go to his pocket. For him to pull it out for me is understandable, looking back at how he might have seen it, but frustrating because I think I won the ball cleanly. Coming after the first yellow card it was really disappointing.”
“When I was walking off the pitch I felt like I’d let the lads down at first,” he said. “You can look back at it now and think that isn’t the case because they managed to dig in for the last 20 minutes and win the game. When I was walking off the pitch I was just hoping we would see the game out.
“Reflecting on it over the last few days, it’s disappointing that I’ve got myself into the team and scored a goal, but I’ll now have to miss the game at the weekend. I’ve been waiting all season to play games. To come in and have a couple of days training then get a game and a goal got me up and running.
“After that you want to stay in the team and play every week so it is disappointing to know that I’m not going to be involved. It’s something I’ll learn from and put behind me so I’m ready to go again on Tuesday.”
The suspension following the receipt of his early marching orders means he will now miss the home game against Blackpool at the weekend.
“Ideally I’d have liked to have been involved in a local’ish derby against Blackpool, because there’ll be a big crowd, but if it was going to be any other game you’d want to be involved in then it would be the Doncaster match next week,” he commented. “It’s a top of the table clash and both teams are flying, so it will be a good game.
“I’ve played against Blackpool a few times in the past and they’ve always been feisty encounters. It will probably be the same on Saturday. Hopefully the lads can go out and put in a performance that can carry on our run.
“I’ll be there for the lads like I would be if I was playing. I’ll support them until they go out and warm up before I take myself away and let them do their jobs. There’s a lot of experience in there and they’ll make sure everyone is on it.”
“We’ve got a good group of lads here, I saw that in training when I first came in,” he concluded. “It’s a group of lads who believe in what we’re trying to do. Everybody in there believes that we can get promoted and they’re all pulling in the right direction.
“There’s a huge amount of confidence and after Saturday’s result it feels like we’ll be able to kick on and push up the league. For us as strikers, we know we’re going to get chances. All strikers talk about is the service they get, so if you’ve got wide men who put the balls into the box like Nicky and the other lads you’re going to score goals and get on the end of things.
“Nicky has been doing it consistently with the amount of assists he’s got so far this season and he’s a dream to play with. We’ve got John [O’Sullivan] coming in on the other wing as well as the lads who were already here, so it’s definitely a team which will create goals.”
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