' James Connolly Shock '

James Connolly: First-team football was a shock


Cardiff loan man James Connolly says his first few games for League 2 Bristol Rovers were a shock to the system but the youngster says he is loving being exposed to first-team football.

Connolly was thrown in at the deep end when signing for the Gas, put straight into the starting XI on the day he joined the club.

Since then he hasn't looked back and has been an almost ever-present for Joey Barton's side.

He says he has loved every minute of his stay so far, adding he wasn't expecting to play so much.






James Connolly:


“It has been a surprise (playing so regularly),” Connolly said. “When I came here, I wanted to play as much as possible, but the gaffer has thrown me in, maybe through a little bit of luck.

“I’ve done OK and the team’s done well so I’ve kept my place so hopefully I can keep it going. When the team does well all individuals tend to do well so as long as we’ve got a good base, it’s easy to perform.

“I love it (at Bristol Rovers). It’s such a good club. The best club I’ve been at probably. The fans and the lads are really good. I love the gaffer and all the coaching staff; I’m really enjoying it.”

At his tender age of 20, there is no substitute for getting game-time under your belt and doing it in the rough and tumble of League Two will have toughened Connolly up.

“Everyone was telling me it’s important to get experience and now I’ve come here I can see why,” he said.

“The first few games were a bit of a shock to me. The ball is getting lamped on you a little bit more than under-23s football, but you have to learn. You get thrown in you’ve got to swim. So, I took it game by game and just tried to improve every day.

“There are some good players in League Two. It’s a good league and there are some physical players as well. Every game is different, but we’ll just take it game by game and play to our strengths and, hopefully, the team will do well."

Comes back a better player which can only be good for us.

Will he come back to us? He is out of contract at the end of the season.

I guess we probably have an option for another year

U23 is pointless. I would ask the FAW if we could field a team in the Welsh Premier made up of graduated youth players. CCFC could officially loan the players to whatever the FAW team are called so its all above board. It is also a good comparison in case we have missed any Mark Delany's or Rhys Healeys

Big strong centre halfs are big and strong whatever league you play in, they are just poorer footballers. When they have got the physicality the most promising could go onto the conference or L2