It’s been four months since Tommy Spurr last graced a football pitch for a competitive fixture, and the defender was glad to have got the minutes under his belt today, and also talked about this season being a ‘massive opportunity’.
Spurr was called upon this afternoon after skipper Tom Clarke took a knock earlier in the week which ruled him out for the fixture, and with Davies still on the comeback trail with his short-term lay off, it was up to Spurr to partner Paul Huntington at the heart of the PNE defence.
“It’s felt a long time but I’ve worked hard,” said Spurr on his recovery from injury which has ruled him out since October.
“I didn’t think I could get through the 90 minutes too be honest but I managed to get through it so it’s a positive. I’ve got a game under my belt now and hopefully I can back it up and stake a claim for next week and the end of season run in.
“In the first half, we were quite comfortable and although they had the one vs one where Dec (Rudd) has made a good save, we’ve had the better of the chances throughout the game - and with us taking the lead, it’s obviously disappointing not to take three points, but on reflection in the second half when you go down to ten men and you’re hanging on, we’ll take a point.”
It was Tom Barkhuizen who initially got on the scoresheet for North End mid-way through the first half, although some would dispute that North End could have been ahead earlier than that through Spurr himself.
Spurr almost marked his return to action in perfect fashion, meeting Paul Gallagher’s free kick to head home in the first half, only for the linesman to raise his flag for offside.
He continued: “Tom Barkhuizen’s a big player for us and although Callum Robinson might say that he may have touched it, I don’t think he did, but it was a well worked goal and it shows the quality we’ve got in our team.
On his disallowed goal, Spurr continued: “That would have been nice (to score). I’m not sure if I was onside or offside too be honest, I’ve been told that it was close so that would have been nice to get on the scoresheet but we’ll take the point and move on to next week.
“Our team is full of character and it defines us as a team. We never give up and never say die and the lads who came on, dug in and battled and we believe we have a squad that can do that.
“Even when we went down to ten men they had a lot of the ball but no real open chances which is credit to the defence and everybody in front of us.
“We all see this season as a massive opportunity to do something special. There’s not many chances in your career when you can say it so we’ll look to make the most of that.”
Watch Tommy’s full interview as he talks more about his comeback from injury on iFollow now.