Midfielder Owen Moxon’s return to Brunton Park is just 14 appearances old, but his explosion on the scene the season this season has made him a firm favourite with the fans, not least because he was born, bred and raised in the city, and on the terraces of the stadium where he now plays.
His second goal for the club on Saturday was another beauty, this time a measured effort and a placed finish rather than something to be described as a thunderbolt, but we reminded him afterwards that his Denton Holme roots mean, by default, that he can’t rest yet as he still owes us all a goal in the Warwick.
“I’m obviously buzzing to get one here, but it was actually like a home game because I knew so many people in the crowd,” he said. “It’s a big fixture and with being from home and with all of my mates who are fans of the club, I know this is a big one.
“I’m delighted to get one, especially shooting into the away end, but I do want one at Brunton Park. But I’m really pleased with this one as well.”
His equaliser, followed by an assist for Omari Patrick, brought chants of ‘he’s one of our own’ from behind the goal, something the 24-year-old still finds hard to take in, bearing in mind he was playing part-time and driving for UPS just a few short months ago.
“It’s weird,” he told us with a huge smile on his face. “I don’t even know how to explain it. You’re just buzzing when you hear it.
“Everyone is buzzing for me so I just want to get out there and do well. I want to prove that I should be at this level, and I want to keep pushing on and doing well for the team.
“I know how much it would mean to all of the fans for us to go on and do really well and get into the play-offs or get promoted. I think we’re capable of that, so I’ll keep looking towards that.
“When you’re out there you’re focused on the game, but I went to take a corner and I was looking to get my breath back, then that singing started. You can’t help but smile a little bit even though you do try to hold it back. It’s brilliant, just a bit weird.
“It’s brilliant scoring in front of something like that. Being honest, my first touch, the pitch is a bit weird, and my thought was that I was going to hit it first time.
“The boy was coming across so I took another touch and, yeah, I just saw the corner of the goal and I thought I’d try to get it in there. Thankfully it went in and then it’s about running and celebrating with all the fans. It’s just amazing.”
“The gaffer keeps telling me to put my foot through it and shoot when I can, but I didn’t listen to him this time thankfully,” he added. “It was one where I could see the gap open up on the right-hand side and I felt I could get it in there. It’s just a nice feeling to see it hit the back of the net.
“When Omari got his first I was saying to Corey when we were walking back to our half that it was a goal and an assist. I didn’t even know where the ball went when I kicked it, the lad absolutely clattered me.
“It was a studs up tackle, but fair play to the ref, I thought he was good. I looked up and Omari was in the box, and he was dancing around three people. Credit to him because we’ve had reason to be critical of refs over the last few weeks, but he was good in the way he let that go on.”
The manner of Saturday’s win now makes it eight points recovered from losing positions so far this season, a trait that is standing the group in very good stead.
“It’s massive, it just shows so much character from the lads,” he commented. “We didn’t deserve to be behind at the weekend but credit goes to them because they were good at set plays.
“They’ve got a few big boys that were a handful, but I feel like we dealt with them. They didn’t trouble us at all in the second half and that’s down to us not stepping away from the challenge.
“Coming out for the second half we had a feeling that we were going to win. We’d started the game really well and we probably should have been ahead, but that’s just football. Going on to win 3-1 is really important because we haven’t just scraped a draw or a win, we’ve done it convincingly.
“The thing is, we’ve got players who are playing every week, but you’ve seen Omari come back from injury and do what he did. Hopefully he’s ok, I think he’s maybe just got excited because he’s come off the bench and put a shift in, and then there’s all the adrenalin and stuff, so hopefully it’s just that with him.
“I’m buzzing for him to get his two goals, he’s deserved it. He’s had chances earlier on in the season that he’s been beating himself up about, but he’s a goal scorer. He showed that last year, I saw him all over the papers last season, so I’m delighted for him.
“Everyone who came on and everyone who started the game was brilliant. The whole squad is buzzing for each other, even the boys who didn’t play, it’s just a great dressing room. It’s great to be part of it.”
Expanding more on that ruthless streak, he said: “We know we can sit in and defend, we’ve got Corey, Mells and Hunts who will head and kick everything. We’ve got the composure on the ball as well so we can keep hold of it, but we’re a good team and we don’t need to stop there.
“We don’t need to sit in. If we can go and make it a bit more comfortable for ourselves we’ll try to do it. Omari pooped up to get the third and that was a great ball from Gibbo. He went out to right back and put a right shift in for us.
“I’ve never seen him head so many balls, his head’ll be killing him later, but everyone did their bit. We’re a team that wants to score more goals than we have been, and the gaffer keeps telling us that we’re threatening to be a good team.
“I think the performance today shows that there is still more to come. We’re pleased with how the table looks right now but it’s one of those situations where we need to go again next week.
“We want to keep building on what we’re doing – I think that’s eight games unbeaten – and we want more of that. I know we’ve been picking up draws and we feel that some of our performances could have been better, but all we can do is keep trying to get better and better.
“I’ve said from day one that we want to go and win the league. If it’s not that, you want automatic or the play-offs and promotion that way. There’s no reason we can’t do that.
“It’s really exciting to see how good the squad is and all we can do is take it week by week. If we work hard in training we can keep our eye on the goal we all want, and that’s what we’re all doing.”
“On a personal level, I’ve been coming away from games thinking that I could do more,” he told us. “I’ve started well, but even when people have told me I’ve had a good game I’ve felt that I still haven’t been where I wanted to be.
“I’ve been trying to drive forward more but I want more of that. I want to keep getting better and I’ll only do that if I put the work in every week. The most important thing for me is being able to help the team.
“It’s great playing beside Callum as well. We played more as a sitting two, and we rotated quite a bit. I did play deeper at Annan, and it all went through me there, which is a bit different.
“Sometimes in certain games it is harder to get on the ball when you’re a little bit higher up, and sometimes you need a bit of luck as well. The ball can fall to you, and you win the second balls, and that gives you a chance to drive forward.
“I love adapting to what Simmo wants and it’s a bit of a change as well. I had to change my boots at half time today because I was skating about a bit. I went from moulds to studs, so maybe that’s the reason for it all!
“The way I play I like to get away from my marker, I don’t even know I’m doing it sometimes, it’s just instinct. I think there are times when I could probably shoot more and hope for a deflection, and if it doesn’t take one at least it’s on target.
“But sometimes you know the defender will just block it, and that’s why I did what I did. I hate doing something where I think it might get blocked, but overall it’s an area I need to improve.”
With the backing he’s received from the fan base so far it seemed logical to touch on it again, just to see how much it does mean to the players when they see something like that.
“It’s brilliant,” he commented. “They take their time out to come here, they spend their money and travel through. It’s such a big support, a derby game, and I know some of the lads who were here.
“They love this fixture and they don’t just do it for this one. They spend hard earned money to come and watch us, so I just want to thank them for coming and being loud. It doesn’t half help, you can see it’s an extra man, so we’ll all get back together next week as we try to do it again.
“And when they do it you get a massive lift. I’ve been to places before and fans get on your back, it does put a bit of pressure on, but the fans have been brilliant.
“Being local, I know how passionate everybody is. When they get behind us it gives us that massive boost and makes a massive difference.”
