Huseyin Biler was thrust into the FA Cup spotlight last night and he didn’t disappoint when he had to come on for man of the moment Jack Currie.
The 20-year-old made his home debut as we booked a second round tie at Plough Lane against Chesterfield, after we improved in the second-half and wrapped up a 3-1 victory over non-league Weymouth.
“It felt great,” said Huseyin after his long-awaited experience. “It felt like all the hard work was put to use. It was great playing for the club under the lights. Jack has started brilliantly and I’m proud of him as well. It was unfortunate that he picked up a little niggle, but we’ll see how things go.”
The defender was made to wait for his big moment, having suffered an injury in pre-season after making a promising start in the build-up to the campaign.
“It feels amazing,” said Huseyin who is eligible to play for Cyprus. “Being out of action just gave me that extra bit of hunger to comeback and drive on to impress the manager, to get going, get my head down and keep working hard.
“I sprained my medial collateral ligament in my first game of pre-season. I was out for a couple of months, but got back, trained with Sports Scientist Chris McConnell and Physio Tim Maynard and finally I’m ready to play football again.
“Moving forward, I just want to impress Johnnie Jackson, keep playing football and work hard. That’s all that’s on my mind.”
Huseyin was called upon in the first-half when the visitiors did well to frustrate us and keep the tie alive. However, goals from Ayoub Assal and a quickfire brace from Ethan Chislett resulted in us securing our progression.
“We weren’t quite at it in the first-half,” said Huseyin. “We livened up after the break and got the result. Credit to them, but when we went back into the changing room we all knew it wasn’t good enough and we said we had to do better.
“Ayoub got us underway, and he just gets better as every game goes by. He’s doing very well and I’m happy for him. He had some recovery time on Saturday, having missed the game through suspension, but he came back fired-up.
“Ethan was class. He came on and changed the game. That’s what we require from our players in those situations.”
Photos: Ian Stephen (Pro Sports Images).
You can see the full interview with defender Huseyin Biler below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.