Craig Mackail-Smith
Image by: Paul Hazlewood
PUBLISHED
06:00 27th March 2015
by Luke Nicoli
Now it’s a case of taking it one game at a time and taking the positives from my recent performances."
Craig Mackail-Smith
Craig Mackail-Smith
Brighton & Hove Albion striker Craig Mackail-Smith has had a stop-start season following his return from a long-term Achilles injury, but is now focusing on delivering the goods in the final Championship games of the season.
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He told Seagull, the club’s official matchday programme, “Mentally and physically it’s been tough. Not having done something for 13 months - things that I’d been doing every day for a long period of time - your body just forgets and it takes time to get it back going.
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“Then you have your battles with your head because you want to be doing better than you’re doing and you get frustrated.
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“One of the biggest obstacles for me was accepting that it would take me a long time to get back to the level I was before the injury.* I was always fighting myself and fighting my body – maybe training too hard and too much because I was so keen to get back and show everybody that I still had the ability to do what I’m good at.
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“Now it’s a case of taking it one game at a time and taking the positives from my recent performances.”
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The Scottish international was recalled from a one-month loan with Peterborough United at the end of December when first-team coach Nathan Jones was in charge and he admits his time away with the Posh inspired him to cement his position in the Albion’s forward line.
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“It helped in the fact that it gave me three 90 minutes of football. It was also nice to go back to see people who were there from my first spell; mind you the training ground has changed compared to when I was there and only one or two players are left, so it was a completely different atmosphere.
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“But I’ve done that stint now and it’s all about breaking back into the Albion team on a regular basis between now and the end of the season, doing as well as I can, and making an impression on the manager.”
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The full interview with Craig can be found in Derby County issue of Seagull, still available in the Amex Superstore, priced £3.50, or available to purchase online at seagullsdirect.co.uk
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[/h]FRIDAY 3RD APRIL, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V BOURNEMOUTH*
[/h]FRIDAY 10TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
Original article