Eager Abu Ogogo keen to kick-start Shrewsbury season
While others may begin to lose their heads when not involved with the first team, Abu Ogogo has praised the competition within Shrewsbury Town this season.
The combative midfielder secured his first start of the campaign – and completed his first 90 minutes – at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday night, writes Lewis Cox.
Refreshed from a long summer break and working hard behind the scenes at Greenhous Meadow, the 26-year-old is now ready to take his impressive form from the north-east into tomorrow's League One clash with Gillingham.
Last season's Player of the Year may have found game time tougher to come across this term, with the arrivals of Gary Deegan and Antoni Sarcevic in his central midfield position, but he has not lost any of the battling spirit that made him such a hit at Shrewsbury.
"It's better for the squad with the competition," admitted Ogogo. "No-one is comfortable, no-one is guaranteed their place and it makes you train harder.
"If you don't perform well or you slack off or anything then someone else will take your place.
"But, yes, I want to get back into the team. I've been training hard, getting my head down and working hard so whenever the gaffer needs me I'm ready."
The former Dagenham & Redbridge midfield man admitted to tiredness after coming off the Stadium of Light pitch, but is revelling in the prospect of building up his match fitness.
Ogogo made an astonishing 50 appearances in all competitions for Salop last season and is hoping to help Town improve on a mostly positive start to 2016/17.
"It's definitely good to get that first 90 minutes under my belt," he added. "You can do as much training as you want but you get your fitness from playing games. So it's good for me.
"Yes it was a baptism of fire, but I've been training hard and waiting for my chance, so when the gaffer said I was in the team to play at the Stadium of Light against Sunderland I was buzzing.
"There are a lot of midfielders so the gaffer is going to rotate the squad, everyone's going to get their chance eventually, you just have to make sure you take it."
Ogogo added: "Some of the results have been decent, we've been unlucky in some games, but in some we've defended poorly for the goals. Apart from that I thought we've done well so we can take positives. There's a lot of new players and new faces, they're working hard on the training field and the gaffer has a lot of big choices to make."
