Defender Joel Senior now has two reserve outings under his belt having returned recently from a horrible ACL injury picked up at the beginning of February this year.
And Tuesday night’s outing against Bransty Rangers included a crunching first-half tackle that left the right back in a heap on the floor – but only temporarily as he stood up, dusted himself down and cracked on.
“He’s actually had a few tackles like that in training as well,” gaffer Paul Simpson said. “Sometimes, as hard as it sounds, lads who have had bad injuries need that just to give themselves the reassurance that they can cope with it.
“The surgery went really well, we’re delighted with how the work he’s doing has gone since that, and the strength work he’s done has really helped.
“It’s now just that psychological stuff of knowing he’s ready to go. I thought as the game went on he started to do things instinctively without overthinking it.
“He started to get a little bit of tightness around his hips against Bransty, and that’s perfectly normal, so we decided to bring him off and not risk him at that 80-minute point.
“He trained as normal on Thursday and Friday so we’re not seeing any reaction to it at all. What we need him to do now is keep maintaining his work rate.”
And, of course, for a player who is yet to feature under the current manager, there’s the small matter of needing to show him what he’s about.
“I’ve been impressed with him,” the manager commented. “I knew of him before I came here, he was a player I’d heard good things about, and I’ve seen the way he’s gone about his business trying to get himself back fit.
“Physically he’s in a really good shape. The big thing we have to do now is get him over that mental barrier of getting himself back in, and he only gets that in training fully and playing in games.
“In training and games people don’t hold back, he has to ride tackles, go into block tackles, that’s where he’ll get the confidence that his joint is in shape.
“From what I’ve seen of him so far, and if he can keep steadily improving, he could be a really important player for our first team.
“As to when that is, I don’t think you can put a certain point on it. I want him back as soon as possible, I want to be able to look and say Joel can be involved in our 18 or even the 11 starters.
“The sooner that comes the better for me. I just think he’s just got to keep working and be freer in the work he does. But that will just come in time.”
