Ben Farrell was delighted to get into the action for the second half of Saturday's 2-1 win against Barrow.

The subject of a loan enquiry by Histon last week, Ben heard Gary Brabin insist that he is part of his first team plans and then the midfielder was sent on at half-time in place of assistant manager Paul Carden, who suffered an ankle injury during the first half.

"After this week's goings-on, I was really glad to get on the pitch and play football, which is all I really want to do," he said afterwards.

"It's not good that Paul picked up an injury but you have to take the opportunities when they come to you. I just want to put this week behind me and build on the second half performance and have people talking about my performances rather than anything else.

"I really enjoyed myself out there, although I did feel I had an extra bit to prove with all the fuss in the papers," added the 22-year-old.

"It gave me a little bit of extra pressure to prove myself but the important thing was for the team to get the three points and defensively we held together very strongly, particularly towards the end. Barrow were very competitive; you wouldn't have thought they'd come up through the play-offs from the Blue Square North; they look like a side who can match what Histon and Salisbury did last year."

Reflecting on the first three games and United's current position atop the table, Ben feels the squad is strong and equipped to better last season's league performance: "That's three games in a row we've won and it shows the strength in the team when we have to grind out results as we did today.

"Although we've changed the squad a bit, we've maintained the drive from last season and the main backbone of the team is still in place, and I feel we can do better than we did last season."

Interview by David Gray

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