The past finally caught up with Ali Al-Hamadi last night and now the young striker wants to add more trophies to his cabinet.
The 21-year-old Iraqi international made an instant impact last season and he finally received his EFL Young Player of the Month award for March.
This arrived particularly late, initially due to a delay for the EFL in the production of its trophies, and then because it was holiday season!
But now, the focus is completely on hard work, and Ali took a vital step in his recuperation by playing for an hour last night, after recovering from a tear to his heel.
“I honestly can’t wait to get going!” said Ali, having added more minutes to a run out against Brentford B behind-closed-doors last Friday.
“As a footballer, I’d be lying if I said it’s not nice to get recognised for performances and results on the pitch, even though I am receiving this award four months later!
“It gives me the drive, the hunger and the motivation to go even better this year and win more of these awards and most importantly help the team out and win games, because that’s what we’re here to do.”
His full recovery from a Plantar fascia tear is now going according to plan. Ali said: “I’m in a good place. I feel like I’ve accelerated, because I want to be fit for the start of the season to help the boys out.
“I get little niggles and cramps during the games which is completely normal in pre-season, but I think the best way to get your fitness up is just to play games and I’ve got another one on Saturday to hopefully get minutes in. Then the league is here and it’s go time.
“Maybe I’ll get seventy, eighty minutes or even the full game at Wealdstone, but that’s up to the Sports Science guys and whatever they think is suitable. Then we build up to Grimsby – it’s come around so quickly!”
Ali rejects the notion that results in pre-season count for nothing. We’ve yet to be beaten and still only conceded just the once, against QPR last Saturday.
“A game of football is a a game of football,” said Ali. “The talk about pre-season doesn’t mean anything isn’t feasible in my opinion. You’re out there to win games of football at the end of the day and at the end of last season that’s something we struggled to do.
“Getting wins and draws and not conceding and keeping clean sheets is a big part of what we’re trying to do. The work that we’ve been putting in behind the scenes is really coming to fruition and its about taking that into the league games, which I’m confident we can do.
“Everyone is aware we’ve made ten new signings, so it’s healthy competition for places and it only pushes us to be better. I feel at times last season we may have got comfortable in our positions, felt secure in a way, because the squad was so thin, so that’s testament to the recruitment that’s gone on behind the scenes. It can only push us to be better as a team.”
Photos: Ian Stephen (Pro Sports Images).