Gary Dicker on the Christmas period and the Plymouth game
Midfielder Gary Dicker spoke to us ahead of training at the Newcastle United Academy on Wednesday morning."As footballers we haven't had many days off over Christmas so it's been good to spend some time with family," he told us. "You don't really know what to do with yourself with a break like this. We all had a good idea the Accrington game would be off but you're still waiting to see what's happening until the call is actually made.
"Christmas Day was a bit strange. I was looking through Twitter at the updates and it was disappointing not to play, but it was good to see family you wouldn't have seen if the game had gone ahead.
"The lads were all texting each other to see what the weather was like down there and we knew it was awful. However, until somebody said it was off we all had that little bit of hope."
"I don't think this break we've had will affect us at all," he said. "I think it's probably an easy thing to say when we haven't played, but we've been able to get our rest when everyone else has played two games in three days.
"We'll go into Saturday fresh because we've had a bit of a gap since our last game, but I don't see it as a setback at all."
"It's always nice having games in hand but they aren't guaranteed points," he commented. "Everyone will start saying 'if we win those two games we'll be in this position' but we've got to go out and win the games first. Mind you, it's good to have those two games in hand and still be in the play-offs.
"If we can get a win on Saturday against Plymouth that puts us right in the mix again. We've been on a good little run, I think it's six games without defeat now, so it would be nice to keep that going. We've played Plymouth twice this season so we know we have nothing to fear against them.
"We've proved against them twice that we're capable of being up there. If they're winning the league then we've got nothing to fear. I know we got beat down there in the league game but the scoreline told a different story to how we played. We proved a point in the cup when we went and won comfortably."
"I think we're all a little bit disappointed we aren't further up the league," he admitted. "When you look at the games where we've dropped points there are a few where we probably shouldn't have done.
"There's games where we've nicked a point at the end so they all balance themselves out. The next run of ten games will be massive and if we can stay in and around the play-offs we've got a great chance."
On training over at the Newcastle United U18 Academy facility, he said: "Newcastle have been brilliant with us, as have all the other teams who have let us use their grounds. If Newcastle hadn't allowed us to use these facilities this week we probably would have been training in the car park. They're great facilities and we can't thank the clubs enough."
When asked about his own form as we go into the New Year, he said: "I don't think I've let myself down this year, I think I've played well when I've been in the team.
"I thought I was a bit unlucky not to play the game after the Portsmouth game, because I felt I'd played well, but as players we all have to accept things like that. I've just got to keep people on their toes and if I do play on Saturday I'll be giving everything again."
When asked about his own form as we go into the New Year, he said: "I don't think I've let myself down this year, I think I've played well when I've been in the team.
"I thought I was a bit unlucky not to play the game after the Portsmouth game, because I felt I'd played well, but as players we all have to accept things like that. I've just got to keep people on their toes and if I do play on Saturday I'll be giving everything again."
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