Interview | Richards-Everton battling back to full fitness

Saturday’s Isuzu FA Trophy tie at Slough Town offered Ben Richards-Everton the opportunity to get 90 minutes under his belt.

The powerful defender has seen his progress halted by injury so far this season, but with each week that passes by, he is getting back up to the levels that we all know he is capable of.

“I’m working hard to get back up to speed,” he said. “The first couple of months of the season have been frustrating for me, but the Gaffer has been brilliant.

“I want to be able to get back involved and start affecting things on the pitch, so to be able to get a full 90 minutes at the weekend was important for me.

“I’ve felt as though I’ve been letting people down by not being able to get out there on the pitch. I’m going to take things game by game to ensure that I can get back up to the standards that I expect of myself.

“As a group we know that we have been shipping in too many goals this season. Hopefully I can come back in and use my experience to help us in this respect.”

City head to Basingstoke Town on Tuesday evening as we return to League business amidst a busy schedule of fixtures.

“We will go there with a winning mentality as we do for every game,” added Richards-Everton. “If we are to be successful this season, we know that we have to be able to go to places like this and bring home the points.

“They have their threats and it will be another tough test for us, but we’re determined to add to our points tally.

“There are always aspects of our game that we can improve on. We were slightly disappointed with our performance at the weekend; we rode our luck and gave ourselves a bit too much to do at times, but we defended for our lives when we needed to and also created a few chances at the other end.

“Despite our hosts struggling this season, they are still operating at the level above us, so to go there and make it through to the next round was a real achievement.

“It wasn’t the best surface on which to play our fluid football, but we got through to the next round, which was the main objective, and now we can look forward to a home tie against another higher level opponent in Worthing in the next round.

“Before that, though, there are plenty of vital League points up for grabs, starting tonight so that’s what our focus is on at the moment.”