SQUAD ROTATION
I can't stand being dropped when I know I have had a half-decent game. It has happened recently and in the past – no-one in particular has played well and you get dropped and other people stay in the team. Sometimes you feel like you haven't deserved to be dropped. You think: “Why should I get dropped and not other lads?”
But I suppose that is just the way football goes. I don't sulk when it happens, though – I just get my head down and work hard to get back into the team. I sleep on it and then the next day I'm not so frustrated and I get on with it.
The FLP says: You decide when you need a rest, this is going into Room 101.
HOTEL DINNERS
It starts with the long journeys that we have to do every away game. We get on the bus at about nine o'clock and we end up at the hotel at about six o'clock.
Then you get there and the chicken they provide for you is as dry as anything. It seems to happen at every hotel we stay at. Obviously you get to the hotel and you want a decent meal, preparing for the game.
At home I do the cooking, because the wife can't cook, and I'll make something nice but when you are at a hotel the food isn't great. The food is probably worse than the journey – you can get away with a long trip with a bit of banter on the bus.
The FLP says: Footballers need proper fuel, hotels need to start upping their game!
HOUSE CHORES
It is mainly the missus' nagging. I am getting home from a hard day's training and the wife wants me to do chores. I do all the cooking anyway and I get in and just hear kids screaming and she says she has had to deal with it all day. I just want to relax but I have to change nappies.
Obviously I do it because I love my kids but I feel like I'm the only one working in the house at times. I guess from that perspective I quite enjoy the away games – a bit of peace and quiet. I just don't like the food!
The FLP says: Parents don't get to relax – just missed the full house.
