SEAN Scannell is certainly not feeling any added pressure from City’s desperate situation.

Having come through the toughest period of his career in the past six months, this is the easy bit.

The winger is delighted to be playing again after a fractured back meant he has spent the bulk of City’s disastrous season on the sidelines.

Their uncomfortable league position is not going to put him off trying to make the most of every minute from the remaining five games.

“Everyone thinks we’re going down, so in a way we’ve got nothing to lose,” he said.

“We want to prove everyone wrong. As players, when we hear people saying ‘we’ve gone’ then we don’t even listen to them.

“We are going into every game positive. If you don’t, you just kick yourselves.

“We get one win at Bristol Rovers and suddenly confidence will go up. Then we can get closer to all the teams around us.

“For me, it’s possible. We can do it.

“I’m not going to lie. I think we can still stay up.”

Scannell is still perplexed about how exactly the injury happened – but an unusual twinge during a game suddenly alerted him that something might be wrong.

He added: “I don’t have a clue. I just felt a weird pain when I was running.

“I had a scan afterwards and they said I’d fractured my back. It must have been something over time.

“I’ve had a stiff back before now and then but nothing like that. Maybe over time the stiffness was causing a lot of stress on my back which led to the fracture.

“It probably is the toughest time I’ve had. There have been a couple of injuries with my ankle and things like that and I’ve been out for a while but not like this.

“But I’m too positive for it to get me down. There’s more to life than injuries.”

Gary Bowyer eased Scannell back into the fray with a 76th-minute sub appearance against Doncaster. He aims to give him more time at Bristol Rovers this weekend but City remain understandably wary of demanding too much, too soon after such a lengthy absence.

Scannell said: “It’s not like I’ve done my hamstring or my calf. I broke my back.

“I can’t just expect to go out there and run around like mad.

“You’re always going to feel a little bit rusty in the first few minutes. Going into the first challenge or anything, you’re going to be cautious.

“But once I got into it, it felt better. I’ve got to be careful but hopefully I can play my part in helping us stay up.

“It’s game by game for me. I wished I’d come back before now but it is what it is and I’ve just got to take every chance I can.”

The former Huddersfield flyer had played only 12 times before the injury – and was sent off in the last one against Sunderland at the beginning of October.

His naturally positive nature has been tested but he will not allow any heads to drop as the clock continues to tick on their dwindling survival chances.

“We’re starting to play more football, getting chances and, for me, looking way more confident than we have in the past.

“If we score the first goal, then everything changes. I think it will come – but we’ve only got five games left.

“We need everyone to be involved and at their best.”