Jamie ready to get back to business after suspension
After his dismissal against Wycombe on New Year’s Day, Exeter hitman Jamie Cureton has had to endure a frustrating time on the sidelines in 2013 after being handed a three-match suspension.
But now that the striker has served his time, he returns to contention to face his old side Bristol Rovers this Saturday at the Memorial Stadium. However he admits that he has suffered for his dismissal, and now he’s raring to go again and looking forward to making up for lost time.
“It’s not been great,” Jamie reflected on a period spent watching on. “As soon as the incident happened, the first thing I thought was that I’d let the boys down and the team. And then I thought, I’m going to miss three games for something so silly.
“Normally you miss games through injuries or whatnot, but to be missing them knowing I’m fully fit and when the form had been good has been frustrating.
“It’s been two weeks – thankfully we’ve had the game on the Tuesday which has helped me out. But it’s not been nice coming into training every day and knowing you’re not going to play. I was praying to get Tuesday [against Torquay] out the way, and as soon as that’s gone, I can get back involved and hopefully do the job again.
“Since then I’ve probably trained as well as I have since I’ve been sent off, purely through excitement that I can get playing again. I’m looking forward to the game – hopefully I’ll be involved at some point and hopefully we’ll pick up the points and keep on the good form going.”
Despite being the veteran in the squad, Curo was happy to admit that he’s never too old to stop learning from his experiences and errors. Quite conversely, in fact, he feels that he is more receptive than he was in his younger years and can take a lesson from his first dismissal for over eight years – the last coming as a QPR player against another former side in Reading.
“You learn all the time,” he continued. “I’ve learned a lot more in my thirties than I did in my twenties. When you’re young, you tend to take everything for granted and don’t take things on board. It was a silly thing, it was born out of frustration, probably without realising I was frustrated.
“I reacted and did something very silly – thankfully it didn’t cost the team, it just cost me. Hopefully I can get back in and repay the boys a bit.”
In his absence, City had still managed to find the net – with fellow striker John O’Flynn being one of the main sources of goals. However, the Irishman tore a hamstring against Torquay, meaning the prolific partnership won’t be reunited upon Cureton’s return.
“Flynny’s workrate is unbelievable, he runs all day. It’s a real shame because he’s been in good form, and when we’ve played together it’s worked well. But I suppose in the respect of him getting injured and me coming back, at least we’re not too short up front.
“If we’d both been out, we haven’t got a massive squad and then we’d start to look a bit thinner. Hopefully with me coming back in, I can help to keep the run going and get Flynny back as soon as possible.”
Not only does Saturday offer Cureton a chance to revisit his old stomping ground at the Mem, it is also set to be his 700th appearance in English football. Postponed fixtures and a ban have made it a long time coming for the forward but he’s looking to finally reaching the landmark with City.
A testament to his quality and his endurance down the years, he admits that reaching the 700 mark has outdone the expectations he had of himself when he was at the start of his career – but at the same time, feels he still has plenty left in the tank yet.
“It’s huge – but it seems to have taken a while! I was quite close to it, but with the suspensions it’s dragged on. On a personal level, to get to 700 games – I would never have never thought that when I started out. And I still feel good that I can continue adding to that.
“So that’ll be a big occasion, but I’ll probably look at it more fondly after the game if we’ve got the result, and it’ll be something I can look back on later on in life.
“It’s funny how it’s worked out. It was pencilled in to be York away, which got ruined because of my stupidity. Out of that, it’s turned out to be against my old club. So it’s funny how these things turn out, and it will add a bit more to it.”
Click here to see the full interview with Cureton on Grecian Player. Until the end of January, you can get Grecian Player in the January Sale for the price of less than 9p per day.