Fit-again midfielder Cole Skuse is not only confident his injury problems are firmly behind him but also that he can play a part in Town winning automatic promotion back to the Championship in a few weeks’ time.
Skuse returned for his first taste of match-day action this season in Saturday’s hard-earned 1-0 home win over Plymouth, when he came off the bench in the 64th minute, and he firmly believe the Blues are capable of securing one of the two automatic promotion places up for grabs.
"It’s amazing,” he said, "because when I got back home from the game I was obviously looking at the league table and I wasn’t just looking at the play-offs, I was also looking at the top two and they are well within anyone’s reach.
"The pack of clubs at the top is so compact and tight that you’re thinking there are seven or eight teams who could get in that top two.
"With the new manager coming in it has given us the drive and boost, and we’re looking to get out of this league as quickly as we can.
"The quickest route out of it is the top two so that’s for us — we want to get out of this league, and the sooner the better.”
Beating the Pilgrims took Town back into the play-off places for the first time since mid-December and while they remain 14 points adrift of leaders Hull they also have three games in hand on them.
Second-placed Peterborough have 62 points, eight more than the Blues, from the same number of games and Lincoln are third with 61 points having played a game more than Paul Cook’s men.
Skuse was asked what it would mean to him if Town won promotion and he responded: "For me it’s a necessity for the club to bounce back as soon as possible. We don’t want to be stuck in this league forever and a day because it’s a tough one to get out of. For the town as a whole as well, it’s a necessity.
"The club needs to be back where it belongs and as players we all want to be there. As a group we’re more than capable and we’ve got a manager who wants to be back there too. He doesn’t want to manage in League One. It’s a must for all of us.”
The veteran midfielder — he turns 35 later this month — is back after an extended absence due to the pandemic and last season’s campaign being curtailed on a points-per-game basis, with the past five months being spent on rehabilitation after he picked up a knee injury in pre-season training that he never envisaged would keep him sidelined for so long.
Skuse added: "The first spell I missed was completely out of our hands because of the pandemic and when I came back for pre-season training with the rest of the players I was feeling really good. I was in a really good, physical state and then I had a really freak fall in training.
"It was a slip and I didn’t anticipate how long I was going to be out. At the start I was thinking it would only be a few weeks and so did the surgeon as he prepared to go in, operate and tidy up my knee.
"In fact it turned out to be four or five months, quite a long time, but to get on to the pitch on Saturday, play the 30 minutes or so and see the game out, which we did, was absolutely fantastic.
"I probably didn’t look it at the end of the game but I felt like a million dollars. The knee feels absolutely fine and in the surgeon’s opinion having the op will prolong my career rather than hinder it in any way.”
Town are at Fleetwood tonight, the first of three away games on the trot, with Portsmouth and Wigan to come on the next two Saturdays respectively.
Does he feel ready to start the next game? He added: "The way I’m feeling I think I could start. If we’re looking at the data and stats that clubs do now, when we reported back for pre-season training I maybe wasn’t right at the top of the group but I’ve had a lot of fitness stuff during my recovery, a lot of training sessions and I played 30 minutes or so on Saturday.
"I felt really good, really fit and the knee felt solid, so if the manager was to call upon me to start the game at Fleetwood I’d be ready to go.”
Skuse said he always felt confident about returning this season, adding: "I always knew I would be back. I’ve had injuries in the past where they’ve said ‘You’re going to be out for 12 to 16 weeks’ and I managed to come back in four or five.
"I knew with this one it was going to be different in the sense that I couldn’t sort of cut any corners or shave any time off, because if I did I would be knocked back to square one. I had to be careful and I had to do everything properly.
"We have a fantastic medical team at the club — Matt Byard, Alex Chapman and Tom Walsh — and they got me back in the best time possible, and I always knew it was going to happen.
"It’s amazing because when I first suffered the injury it was amazing the amount of people who were probably thinking ‘That’s him done, that’s him retired. At his age he’s finished.’ Well, that reaction almost adds a lot of fuel to the fire. It gives you additional hunger and fire to get back and prove them wrong.
"I knew within myself that I was capable of coming back because I was in a really good physical state before the injury. I just promised myself to get back, get back on the pitch and hopefully play my part in getting us over the line.”
"I had a lot of messages beforehand and again after the game, which was really quite emotional. It was really quite nice and what made it all the better was that we won the game. I would say it’s a feeling you can’t compare.”