From Pirate to Pilgrim

AHEAD of Sunday’s FA Cup second-round clash against League One side Bristol Rovers, Dom Telford looked back on his career at the Gas, whilst looking ahead to a hopeful push into the third round.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I enjoyed my time there, I met some great people and it’s always nice in football when you go back to teams that you have played for previously.

“Hopefully, it’ll be a good day for us.”

Dom is fighting for a place in the starting line-up, especially for contests like this, as he struggled to do so at former loan club, Stoke City. Despite doing well, he found himself unable to have a solid position in the team at under-23 level, so he found himself out on loan at Rovers.

“I felt like I improved that season,” he said. “I didn’t play as much as I would have liked starts-wise in the league. I scored a few times when I came on and I had quite a good season.

“It definitely helped me, I felt like I needed to get out of the 23s and by that point I didn’t want to do another year there [at Stoke], so it was great to get out and get some first-team football at a good club, I enjoyed it.”

“It [the FA Cup] is a great competition, everyone enjoys playing in it and you never know who you might get in the third round.

“For some reason, I do seem to do well in cup competitions and it would be unbelievable [to get to the third round], that’s what everyone wants.

“The opportunity to play against some of the top teams is what everyone dreams of.

“We have a long way to go, Bristol Rovers are a good side and are doing well in the league, so we will go there looking for the win and see how it goes.”