7:40am Tuesday 31st August 2010
By Simon Parker
Jake Speight believes he is starting to show that City were right to stick by him during his troubled summer.
The energetic striker was the only positive of last week’s miserable defeat to Southend, pictured below.
Coming on the back of the Preston cup tie – when he scored his first goal for the club – Speight is winning over the doubters who questioned his arrival following the jail controversy.
Speight, who is expected to be rewarded with a start against Port Vale on Saturday, is confident he has put that difficult opening month behind him.
He said: “It was a little bit frustrating after what happened in pre-season. It took me a little while to get my head round certain things.
“But I was just thinking about getting settled in and back to playing football and I’m just about there now.
“There are parts of my game I need to improve on but I feel I’m doing what they brought me here for.”
Speight is not short of incentive as he tries to repay Peter Taylor for sticking by him. The 24-year-old also wants to prove how far he has come on since an initial failed attempt at league football with Sheffield United and Bury.
“I’ve got a lot to prove to myself in this league,” he added. “Other people have doubted me before and I’m still grateful to the gaffer and the club for supporting me.
“It was great to get that first goal against Preston last week. You need that as a striker, even if you’ve played well.
“After the Nottingham Forest game I started feeling better football-wise but I was lacking that little bit of sharpness. Then I had a couple of weeks out when I took a little knock, which was frustrating.
“But I’m naturally fit anyway and hopefully that’s there now so I can look forward to getting games under my belt and scoring more goals.”
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