Defender Joel Senior made a return to first-team action exactly 10 months after his fifth appearance for his new club had come to a horrible conclusion when he suffered an ACL rupture in the February 2022 away game at Salford.
And manager Paul Simpson confirmed that it was a ‘needs must’ appearance that had to come ahead of schedule due to the injury crisis that continues to dog almost every move the club makes.
“I thought Joel did well,” he said. “I’m delighted for him to get 90 minutes, I didn’t expect that, because I thought it would be 60 or 65 at most.
“I accept he made a mistake for the first goal, and maybe if he was a couple of games in that wouldn’t happen. In those situations you’re probably safer putting it behind for a corner then dealing with it from there.
“He’s worked extremely hard and in an ideal world we wouldn’t have needed to start him. With what happened with Jack Ellis and Fin Back we were in a situation where it really is needs must.
“It was an unfortunate mistake for that goal and I would have liked somebody to rescue him. I’d have liked the keeper to have made the save and then everybody forgets about it.”
“Joel will be better for this 90 odd minutes,” he added. “He’ll get stronger and more confident. He’s shown real personality to do that, and real character to be able to just get through it.
“I thought he didn’t crumble, after the mistake, he got himself up and got on with it, and he’ll be better for that.
“He may not feel that at the moment, he’ll be feeling disappointed with what happened early on, but also he should be delighted to get himself back in and to have done well.”
