Ahead of the weekend’s trip to Blundell Park to face Grimsby Town, Gillingham striker Seb Palmer-Houlden has been speaking to KSN for the first time about his initial injury struggles at MEMS Priestfield and how he’s looking ahead and not back… 

“I’ve had a few setbacks since I have been here,” he told us, “I had the injury and a little scare, but everything looks good at the minute – I feel really good in my body especially after Saturday!” 

“I thought I had quite a good pre-season – my body felt really good and then out of nowhere I got a hamstring problem at Dartford and have had a few setbacks since and it’s just been negative all the way through and I finally feel good again in my body and it’s so good to be back on the grass and involved in the team.”

“Injuries are part and parcel of football – they are going to come; you can work as hard as you want in the gym, on the pitch and you are going to get some sort of problem, and it’s how you react to that and respond!”

“Hopefully I will respond quite well – I kept a positive mentality and tried to keep around the boys as much as possible… and they have helped me massively – I cannot credit them enough.”

“I have been “Involved” in every single game with them, and I cannot credit them enough as they have been with me all the way back on my journey to fitness!” 

A last gasp goal from Elliott Nevitt earned the Gills a fully deserved point against Cheltenham Town at Priestfield last time out and SPH admitted, “It’s a really important goal, and I want to give Nev so much credit for working so hard on and off the pitch and he fully deserved that goal.”

“Luck hasn’t come his way in recent games and for that goal to finally come for him after having one cleared off the line and the like, is really important.”

“Obviously, we didn’t want the draw – we didn’t deserve a draw, we deserved to win – I have never played in a game of football where the first half was so dominant; things were not falling for us in the box, but I think it shows the character that this team has as it literally went to the final kick of the game and we got some sort of result out of it, especially when they scored so late… but full credit to the boys on the pitch at the time, they were amazing and never stopped fighting and we got the point at the end of the day!” 

As for this weekend’s opposition, Seb had this to say:

“They have some really good players and are a threat in front of goal as anyone who saw the Manchester United game knows (Grimsby famously beat United in the Carabao Cup earlier this season) and they are a good side, but we have all the capabilities to go up there and get a result from them!” 

“To get a result from a long journey will be ideal and exactly what we want! The fans will testify that it’s not good when you go that far and don’t get the result, but hopefully all will go well on Saturday, and we all have a nice journey home.”

“Our away fans are brilliant – I have just got back into the squad after injury but when we went to Newport – which is one of my old clubs – they were brilliant, the real twelfth man!”

“The fans are amazing and always bring a good atmosphere and I think we will bring a good support even up to Grimsby!”