Elliott Bennett previews Salop's Emirates FA Cup fixture away at Liverpool on Sunday afternoon.
Bennett has been playing as a right-wing-back for the majority of Salop's recent games and has been a reliable figure in Steve Cotterill's side so far this season.
In his pre-match interview, the 33-year-old gave his thoughts on the Cup fixture and offered his opinion on the season so far, both for the club and himself specifically.
On the fixture:
"I'm just excited really. As a kid you grow up dreaming of playing at the best stadiums, against some of the biggest clubs, and Liverpool are exactly that so yeah, it's a challenge for us all and we're all looking forward to it but we know it's a football match, we've got to go there and be our best selves and who knows what could happen?
"You like to think that whoever Liverpool select on the day will be a good player because they've got a contract and play for Liverpool football club. They don't employ people who aren't good enough to play for them, we can't control what their team is, we can just focus on ourselves and what we do well. Yeah we look at what they do, we'll obviously pay them respect but on the day you've got to try and have a plan and we'll be preparing to go there and give a good account of ourselves. When it comes to a game it's 11 men against 11 men, your careers and what you're going to go on to do is irrelevant, it's all about that 90 minutes and we've just got to prepare in the best way we can, be organised, set up, and work as hard as we possibly can. We have to hope we have one of our best ever games and they don't, then we've got a chance.
"The pressure is a bit less for us because no one in the whole country is expecting us to go to Liverpool and win, but it was the same when we played Stratford, everyone was expecting us to win and then they go one-nil up and suddenly you're wondering if there's going to be a bit of FA Cup magic. Thankfully there wasn't that day but hopefully, there will be on Sunday.
"It's what you want to do when you start in the FA Cup and especially when you're in League One or League Two and starting in the first round; you want to get yourself through to the third round and see if you can draw yourself against people you watch on TV because - whether you're a professional footballer or not - everyone watches Match of the Day and Sky, you see these players and you'd love to play these players or in that stadium with those fans and I think that's the special bit about it."
On the season so far:
"I think recently everything has been going a lot better, especially results wise. We've got a good group of lads, everyone is working as hard as they can for each other. Thankfully we've been getting results recently which gives everyone confidence and belief in each other. The start wasn't great but we've got the second half of the season to put that start to bed and right some wrongs from the start of the season.
"For me, I came here because I wanted to play football, the manager brought me in and said I wasn't guaranteed to play, I've got to work as hard as everyone else, I have to be fit, I have to take on the messages and thankfully I've done that and I've been in the team quite regularly and I hope that continues for the rest of the season because I love playing football and I'm really enjoying my time at this football club."
