Defender Morgan Feeney broke through the 50 appearances for the club barrier earlier this season, and he was set to add to that last weekend, having returned from a niggling hamstring injury, until the Barrow home game was called off due to the bad weather.
But the plus side of the postponement was the chance it presented for the club skipper to get another week of work under the belt ahead of the trip to Northampton.
“It was an unfortunate injury, and one of those that everyone gets in football,” he said. “It was a small injury on top of an old injury which kept me out a little bit longer than I would have liked, but I’m back now and just looking forward to kicking on again.
“I obviously felt it in the game at Salford, and a few years ago I maybe would have carried on and potentially made it worse. I took the sensible approach because I knew something didn’t feel quite right, which has probably saved me from being out for a longer period of time.
“When it comes down to it, I just want to play football. I’ve had some injuries in the past but I’m over them now, and this was just a little one which could happen to anyone.
“You’ve sometimes just got to be cautious and look after yourself, there’s no prizes for staying on the pitch and making things worse. It’s about listening to your body and making sure you recover properly so that you’re ready to come back.”
His own form has earned him that now almost expected chant of ‘FEEENNEEEYYY’ which greets almost every touch of the ball he makes.
“The team’s form has been really good, that’s the most important thing,” he insisted. “We’re sitting in a nice place in the table, but we’re going into every game wanting to do well.
“I’m just happy whenever I play, if I can do my bit for the team, I’m delighted. Hopefully I can get many more games under my belt and we can keep playing well as a team.
“We’ve got a good squad with good depth. We all know there’s someone waiting to take your place which means we’re all driving each other on.
“We’re a really competitive group and we all know we need to play well to keep our shirt. I think that’s what’s driving us on, and everyone is learning from each other and bouncing off each other.”
It was a group that had a consistent message back in the summer – a belief that it was up to them to fulfil their obvious potential.
“I don’t think it’s taken us by surprise because we know we’ve got good enough players to go and win plenty of games and do well,” he commented. “We go into every game wanting to win, we don’t look too far ahead or look at what’s gone, we just look at the next one.
“I think if you keep moving forward at that steady pace you won’t go too far wrong come the end of the season.
“Just the three defeats so far is a good record and there are some games where we feel we left a few points out there. They’re gone, we just think about the next one, which is Northampton. We want to go there and win, then we’ll come back and start looking at Bradford.”
Pending confirmation that the match will go ahead, a game against a team also at the top of the table provides an opportunity for a message to be sent.
“It’s the type of game where we can lay down a marker, but we aren’t getting ahead of ourselves,” he told us. “I know I keep saying it, but we just think about winning the next game, whoever it’s against.
“It’s not easy to beat anyone in this league but it would be a bit of a statement if we beat Northampton at their place. They’re a tough side and already up at the right end of the table.
“We’re hoping it’s on because last week was disappointing for everybody connected to the club. The whole week is about building up to it.
“We’d done all of our prep work, then it was off, so we’ll just have to do it again for when it’s rearranged. It’s disappointing but we just moved straight onto the next game and thinking about that.
“It’s been a bit tough with the weather conditions and things. You’ve just got to adapt, try and get on a playable surface to train, try and get as much out of it as we can.
“It’s important we keep not only staying fit but staying sharp, doing the prep right as best we can. It’s difficult with the weather but everyone’s experiencing the same things throughout the country, so you’ve got to deal with it.”
“The last time we went to Northampton we were struggling to get results at that period in time. At the minute we’re full of confidence, full of life. Each game we go into we’re confident we can win.
“That’s the sort of mindset we’ve got. It’s an exciting feeling around the place because we just can’t wait for the next game to go and try and win it. There’s good confidence and spirit among the group.
“Northampton are a strong team, each year they’re always up there with a shout of promotion. It’s always a tough place to go. But this is why you play football, for these challenges.
“If you don’t look forward to games like this, something’s wrong. We’re all just eager to go and play that game, we’re all looking forward to it. We’re more than confident we can go and get a result.”
And, post-Cobblers, we’re then into the important festive period of fixtures.
“The festive period’s arguably the most important period in the year,” he agreed. “It comes thick and fast and you’ve got to be prepared for it. This is what you play football for, for the amount of games that come.
“We’ll be ready for it and we’re looking forward to it. Hopefully we can build on what we’ve done already and get a good few results out of it.
“There’s obviously belief in what we can do but we won’t get carried away with ourselves. After last year, our focus this year was just to win as many games as possible.
“It’s a bit of a cliché but we really are just focusing on one game at a time, we don’t get ahead of ourselves. That’s the mentality we’ve got. This week is about Northampton and next week is about Bradford, we’ll just keep going like that and see where we end up.”
And we couldn’t go without quizzing him about his starring stage role which, he admitted, was followed by the complete surprise of it going viral on the internet when a clip of him leading the squad in a singalong surfaced last weekend.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he joked. “We were out for our Christmas do and I had no idea it was on camera, to be honest.
“Weekend in Paradise has become our song, it’s always the last song we have on in the dressing room before we go out for a game, so it was an obvious choice for me to sing.
“They didn’t have a karaoke version of it, which I think helped me out because you couldn’t really hear me! It was good for us to have a bit of fun together and it does make such a difference.
“We’ve got such a good group of lads and we all have a laugh every day. It’s such a great place to come and work, we can have a laugh but if you ever need the lads, you know they’ll be there for you as well.
“I think that shows in our performances, you can see how together we are and it goes a long way when you’ve got a long league season together.”
