Midfielder discusses his return to the side on New Year’s Day ahead of Peterborough United’s visit to Vale Park on Monday night (8pm kick-off).
- Funso Ojo | “You can see our strength in depth and I feel like we are a different team to August”
- Port Vale midfielder speaks about how the Vale have progressed since the start of the season as Darrell Clarke’s side prepare for the second half of the campaign
- Ojo: “To an outsider, we are probably over-performing but we made some goals at the start of the season and I think there are more and more people thinking the same way now that we could achieve what we set out to at the start.”
Port Vale midfielder Funso Ojo says the Vale are a different side now to the one he last started a game in, four months ago.
The Vale’s Belgian midfielder picked up a hamstring injury in September’s reverse fixture with Monday’s opponents Peterborough United at London Road and says the team have gone from strength-to-strength since that 3-0 defeat.
“To an outsider, we are probably over-performing but we made some goals at the start of the season and I think there are more and more people thinking the same way now that we could achieve what we set out to at the start,” Ojo explained.
“You can see the strength in depth because we rotate a lot; the games at the start of August when I was playing, I feel like it is a completely different team now and that is another strength.”
Ojo made his return to action from the bench in the Vale’s New Year’s Day win at Forest Green Rovers as he replaced Lewis Cass in the latter stages of the game following the defender’s awkward fall.
Thankfully, Cass is fine following the incident at the New Lawn, and Ojo could come on to make a difference as Darrell Clarke’s side came from behind to win 3-1 in Gloucestershire.
“I didn’t expect to get on,” Ojo said. “The staff turned around and told me to get ready but I was like ‘we have made three stoppages, I can’t get on’. Then Cass went down shortly after, it was a good thing that he is OK and it all worked out.
“I didn’t have a special mindset [when I went on], you are just happy to come back on and I was thinking ‘can we turn this around?’. I feel like in that moment, we were already pressing them very much and there was something there [for us]. For me, it was get the ball down and play to the right colour!
While Ojo would have hoped to have made more than 11 first team appearances six months into his Vale career, he said the environment and culture at Vale Park has been “enjoyable” and helped in his recovery from the hamstring injury he sustained last year.
“It has been a long time but it hasn’t felt like a long time,” Ojo said of his recovery. “I have barely had days off, I have just been working and have probably been too tired to think about how long it has been.
“I have been enjoying myself here and they say time flies if you’re having fun.
“I think one of the strengths of this club and this team is that they always check in with you and keep you involved in everything and that has been the case with me too.”
On Monday night’s visitors, Ojo said Clarke’s side will once again look to make life difficult for one of the division’s pre-season promotion favourites.
“It is something that has been said after every game we have played against the top teams, that we have made it difficult for all of them,” Ojo continued. “So why can’t we be one of those teams and make other teams look at us and think we are a hard team to play against?”