Curtis: Moving on Up

CURTIS Nelson is enjoying living life on an upward curve – but he has no desire for the progression to stop.

For the first three seasons of Curtis’ career, Home Park was not a happy place to be. His indoctrination into the world of football came during dark days at Argyle, with financial difficulties compounded by relegation battles that were not always won.

After his tumultuous introduction has come a season of relative calm, and one that surely can be considered a personal success for Nelson.

The talented young defender, still a few weeks away from his 21st birthday, has already made 142 appearances in his short career thus far, and his performances this year have earned him praise from many quarters. His contribution is certainly recognised by the Green Army, who voted him Argyle’s Young Player of the Season.

When asked his thought on how his season has gone, the self-effacing Nelson simply deflected the question, and did so as unerringly as when denying opposition attackers.

“I feel like it’s been a good season for the team,” he said. “Not being in the relegation fight is a lot more positive than in previous seasons.

“We’re not going back down that way. We’re coming off two or three bad seasons and we did just miss out on the play-offs. It was late on that we faded away. Next year, if we get some points early doors – we didn’t have the best of starts this year – then I think we’ll be up there.”

Before next season looms into the view, there is the matter of a season-ending Dockyard Derby away to Portsmouth, with possibly the largest crowd in Sky Bet League 2 this season on hand to view essentially a dead rubber of a tie.

Curtis insists he and the players will be looking to conclude the season on a high with all three points, and they will relish playing in front of a packed Fratton Park.

Said Curtis: “You can’t get any better than playing in front of a big crowd. With it being the last game of the season, it will be a really good game. Especially with the fans that will be travelling up for us.

“We don’t go into games thinking ‘a draw will be okay’ or ‘we don’t mind what happens’. On Saturday are doing to go to win.”

After the weekend is over, Curtis and his colleagues will have seven weeks or so to recharge batteries ahead of a new season. Before reporting back in July to gear up for the new campaign on August 9, Nelson outlined that there is still work to be done during the summer.

He said: “I’ll have a couple of weeks off, completely not doing anything, to let my body recover.  Then slowly I’ll get into doing something, because if you come back stiff having not done anything for seven weeks you’ll pick up injuries.

“That’s the last thing you want in pre-season.”