Nsiala: Three Points Would Be Massive Friday, 22nd Oct 2021 06:00 Fit-again Toto Nsiala has admitted that Town should be looking to collect all three points and make it back-to-back wins under boss Paul Cook for the first time when Fleetwood visit Portman Road tomorrow. The Blues followed up last weekend’s 2-2 draw at Cambridge with a tremendous 4-0 victory on Tuesday at Portsmouth in a game that marked Nsiala’s first league start since the 2-2 opening-day draw with Morecambe and saw them climb to within five points of the League One play-off places. Asked if they should be thinking in terms of another three points, Nsiala replied: “We have to. It’s a game that we really have to get something out of and three points would be massive, especially coming on the back of our win at Portsmouth. It would make it a far better week. “If we don’t beat Fleetwood the win at Portsmouth won’t look so big. We want a good run of results, a good amount of points and to get up the table closer to where we want to be. We really need to start pushing on now. “Honestly, with the squad we’ve got and the quality of players we have we need to be higher in the league. “It’s a joke, when you look at our bench on Tuesday, for example, we had players who are capable of destroying other teams, so we really need to be winning games and Saturday is a day when we should be thinking about picking up three points.” Nsiala is not only delighted to be back to peak fitness but also to have regained his place in Cook’s starting line-up and recalled how he felt when he was forced off with hamstring trouble just 38 minutes into the very first game of the new campaign. He said: “It was basically a case of something that happened before happening again and I was thinking ‘Here we go again’. “The season before last I got injured in the pre-season trip to Germany and it was a long time back with the very same injury. Then, when I did come back, I wasn’t quite match fit and I had a few issues. “It was in the back of my mind but, obviously, my faith stayed strong. I prayed and, glory to God, everything has come through and I’ve been alright. But it’s been great to have the support of the people around me at the club. It’s completely different now to what it was two years ago. “I’m talking in terms of the staff and the backroom team who work so hard to get us back to fitness. There’s more to it, it’s a lot more professional and there are more people around to keep a close eye on us and make sure we’re well, not just physically but also mentally, which has helped me a lot.” Nsiala stressed the importance of his relationship with manager Cook, adding: “I’ve known, oops, I was nearly going to call him Cookie there, the gaffer since I was 17 or 18. “I’m a different player to what I was back then — I’m more of a man now — but the gaffer just wants the best for his players. He’s not just a manager, he’s also a carer. “Outside of football he’s someone who truly cares for his players and will have our back. We’re hoping we can do the same for him, really, by working hard and getting results. “The relationship between me and the gaffer? Honestly, it’s great. Don’t get me wrong, there have been times when we’ve fallen out and argued, but we always hug it out. We never part on bad terms, we have a hug and that’s the way it has always been.” Reflecting on his time at Portman since arriving from Shrewsbury in the summer of 2018, he continued: “For me it has been an up and down time here, what with Paul Hurst and Paul Lambert as managers and a lot of players coming and going. “It’s just something you get used to as a player; you’ve just got to believe in yourself and carry on working hard and keep your head down. What happens will happen but in my experience people who work hard and show a passion for what they are doing tend to end up doing well and kicking on. “I’m hoping that’s what happens with me and the other players who have stayed with the club so long.” Nsiala also explained his thinking with regard to the practice of taking the knee, which has become a global symbol of fighting racism since first performed by American sports star Colin Kaepernick over five years ago. The black San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback first decided to sit rather than stand during the national anthem, then later knelt as a protest against racial injustice and police brutality towards African Americans, which not only became a major talking point but was reproduced by sports teams on a global basis. But Nsiala, who has decided to stand while others take the knee before kick-off, commented: “It’s a thing that I can’t really be taking seriously anymore. With referees, before we go out for the game they’ll ask if we’re taking the knee or not but it should be something that is set in stone that we are taking the knee. “Also, I see taking the knee as a sign of submission. We’re taking the knee to racism when really we should be standing up to it. The reason the American footballers took the knee was because of the national anthem and they didn’t want to be a part of it. “For me it just doesn’t seem right, taking the knee. Going back into slavery and racism, taking the knee is submission to someone that is higher than you. I don’t believe in it, I believe in standing up against it together.” When it was suggested that more has to happen, Nsiala added: “Yes, a lot more. Literally a lot more. The first week of the season, a lot was taken seriously, but through the season it’s just died off. It’s now a choice that referees have. Make it something that has to be set in stone — either we are taking the knee or we’re not doing it.”
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