Neil Etheridge

“It's nice to come away from training and relax, get away from the pressures and get away from football and enjoy the downtime!”

“For any player not playing, it's frustrating.”

“You're one step away, you're one injury away, a couple of training sessions away from getting that No. 1 shirt, so there are how many ways you must look at it.”

“Getting to the Premier League is significant enough. But staying in it is another thing entirely, particularly when you've not spent much and kept the core of the team that was promoted from the Championship and was not even fancied to do so in the first place.”

“I went from Chelsea to Fulham - two Premier League teams at the time - and was sitting on the bench for the Europa League and Premier League and you don't think it is going to finish.”

“Sergio Aguero, everyone knows how good his finishing is, but to play up against him... these top players, until I played against them I didn't realise how good they were.”

“A lot of people see the highs but not the lows. But I've always believed in my ability and that's why I got through my rough patch.”

“It wouldn't be football unless you had critics. There are always going to be doubters and people that will question you as a player but you've just got to get through it.”

“And in the Premier League the support was fantastic, home and away, sellout stadiums win, lose or draw. The supporters were in full voice and that's a massive credit to them.”

“You sit on the bench in the Premier League for one week, you could be playing for the rest of the season if the No. 1 at that time had a bad game.”

“I was born in a city and I didn't think I'd ever want to leave the city life.”

“If you'd told me five years ago, when I was on my sofa with no professional contract, not a lot going for me and the dream fading, that I'd be going back to the Cottage playing for the opposition in a Premier League game against Fulham, who are already down, then no, I wouldn't have believed you.”

“Am I good enough? That's a big thing. Sometimes I do put on a front of 'I'm amazing' and I do believe it, but sometimes I don't believe it.”

“I want to go back to play in the Premier League. I feel it's where I belong.”

“Not many people know this, but at the start of the Premier League season I started seeing a psychologist, because I could do everything on the field, but mentally I was empty.”

“I got offered a short-term contract at Oldham, to sit on the bench. I was living on my mate's sofa while I was there. But that's what you've got to do to get by.”