Defender Shaun Brisley on his goal against Yeovil
Defender Shaun Brisley opened his goal-scoring account for the club in stunning fashion against Yeovil last Saturday and we got him to talk us through it ahead of the Wednesday morning training session this week.“I saw the ball drop out of the sky and I thought, do you know what, I’m running on to this,” he explained. “It was coming down at me just right so I decided I might as well hit it.
“That was only thought in my head at the time and it ended up in the back of the net! I honestly couldn’t believe it. You could see that in my celebration because I was running round like a headless chicken. However, if you don’t take risks you won’t get rewards. It dropped nicely, I was running onto it perfect, so I thought – ah, why not!
“I knew as soon as I hit it that I’d caught it quite well. To be fair, it was on my weak foot as well so it still could have gone anywhere. I could easily have put the windscreen through in my car in the car park just behind the goal, but luckily it went in.”
“The celebrations were brilliant,” he said. “It was funny watching Raynesy in the centre circle because he had his hands on his head in disbelief. I don’t think he moved for about ten seconds, but it was a great feeling when it went in.
“I’ve been due a goal, to be honest, and it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. I’m pleased that it’s come sooner rather than later. It’s been good with Joycey as well [Luke Joyce] because we’ve been winding each other up about the goal of the season thing.
“I think he’s a bit gutted it happened deep-down because someone else has just told him it’s me who is winning the votes. Joking aside, the important thing is we got the three points and we kept the momentum going in the league.”
Speaking about the regular run of games he’s currently enjoying, he said: “Things started slowly for me but injuries are part and parcel of football and not everyone can play every game. I had to deal with that earlier in the season and I knew it was just a case of biding my time.
“I’m really enjoying my football now and long may that continue. It did take me a while to catch back up at the start of the season, obviously because I missed a lot of the pre-season work, but I do feel fully fit now and ready to kick on.”
“It’s always nice to be involved in a team which is doing so well and the confidence in the dressing room at the moment is through the roof,” he confirmed. “We’re taking what we do in training into the games and we’re enjoying every moment of it.
“We’re a group of lads who can play football or go toe-to-toe and that’s important because you need to be able to do both in this league. The stuff we play is really nice at times but we know we can dig our heels in as well. I don’t think we’d have got the three points against Yeovil if we didn’t have that in our game.”
And on the important festive period, he said: “You’re getting to the half way point and you want to be on the maximum points you can get.
“It is busy football wise, but you get used to that over the years. When you’re a bit younger you might miss the family time a little bit but it’s what you expect as a professional.
“Our focus is on making sure we can’t take our foot off the gas because we’ve had a great start. We now want to see if we can better it in the second half of the season.”
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