Danny Grainger on his goal against Morecambe
We spoke to team captain and goalscorer Danny Grainger shortly after full time at Morecambe on Saturday.“We’re all buzzing,” he said. “We went down to Blackpool a few weeks ago and took a fantastic following, but we felt like we let ourselves and the fans down a bit that day.
“I think we showed what we were about today and we repaid the faith shown by the fans by banging in a few goals. There’s an onus on us to perform in every game but we know how well the fans travel for days like this. It’s just down the road and we wanted to make sure we put on a show for them and send them home singing. They were fantastic."
“The first goal is important in so many games, but especially today," he told us. "As soon as we scored the fans got behind us even more, which gave us a real lift. If Morecambe had got the first goal it might have quietened our fans down a little bit and that would have made it harder for us."
On his first half volley, he said: “It’s one of those where as soon as you hit it you know it’s going in. The gap was there and I was lucky it just flew in. I was just saying to Joycey [Luke Joyce] that I’ll show him how to do it in training next week.
“We knew Morecambe were a good team going forward but we knew we could hurt them going the other way. They caused us some problems with Shaun Miller and Jamie Devitt last year and they’ve got the players to do it again this year.
“We know whoever we play, they’re always going to have a good spell within the game. Morecambe weren’t going to let us come here, roll them over and take the three points. We knew we had to work hard and that they would cause us problems if we let them."
“We’re not undefeated by accident," he said. "We’re working hard as a team. With five minutes to go all the lads are chasing back into full back areas to help us out and make sure we keep a clean sheet.
“It’s fantastic when we score, but to score in front of those fans is amazing. I think Charlie [Wyke] got the winner here last year and the scenes were fantastic. I was sat in the stand watching that so I was buzzing to play today."
On the confusion over who should be credited for the third goal, he said: “I’ll give JK [Jason Kennedy] that third goal but I think he’s honest enough to say whether it was an own goal or not. We know we can cause teams problems from our set pieces and we showed that again with the quality of our deliveries.
"There are goals in this team and if we can keep tight at the back we're in with a chance of picking up points from every game."
“We’ve got a hard run of games and everyone will be looking at us and wanting to be the first team to beat us," he continued. "We need to make sure we’re on our toes and we keep plugging away every day.
“The hard work we’re putting in on the training pitch is getting rewarded now. We’ve always worked hard but we’re really showing it at the moment.
“Everyone is really proud of the run we’re on butwe’re not looking at records, we’re just taking each game as it comes. If we pass a few records on the way it’s obviously a bonus.
“We’ll prepare for Hartlepool in the same way as we have been doing and show them the same respect as we have to everyone else. Hopefully we'll keep the run going.”
United PlayerHD subscribers can see an interview with Danny Grainger now. Click HERE to go to the PlayerHD platform. Follow the same link for more information on United PlayerHD, and to subscribe.
