Palmer-Houlden is looking to put injury woes behind him as he looks to find his feet in Coughlan’s starting eleven once more.
After recovering from a serious hamstring injury, Seb Palmer-Houlden is back available for selection ahead of this weekend’s clash with table-toppers Stockport County. Palmer-Houlden suffered a torn-hamstring when he went down just seconds after coming onto the pitch when the Exiles hosted Brentford in round two of the Carabao Cup. The striker described the injury as a ‘horror’ injury but is thrilled to be back on the grass: “It’s one of those things you can’t control,” began Seb. “I think I’ve just overworked my tendon in training the day before, which is probable for me as I like to work hard and impress,” he continued.
On the other hand, I maybe overdid it in the gym prior to the game, but either way, I tried to sprint and my tendon decided it wasn’t happy and I came away with a 19 centimetre split down the back of my hamstring.”
“Thankfully though, it’s healed and I’m ready to knuckle down and crack on, where I left off.”
The striker suffered injury just as he was heading into a consistent run of form both on an individual level and squad level too, Newport had three wins and two losses in their first five games with Seb netting twice in those games. Palmer-Houlden isn’t looking to dwell on the past however and is more focussed on picking up where he left off: “The start was fantastic, we took points from a lot of good teams and scored a lot of goals too.
“For me personally, although getting my first professional goal in the league was great, I’d rather we take positive results as a team, then I know I’m doing my job.
“I think by getting my match fitness back up and getting the minutes in, I’ll naturally progress back into the rhythm of things and help the team as best I can.”
With the Exiles predominantly playing two up-front it’s a battle to break back into Coughlan’s competitive 11. Although every forward will have to battle for his place, it’s a challenge Palmer-Houlden relishes as each striker pushes one another on: “The good thing about the strike partnerships here at Newport is that although we can all play with each other, we can all play together as well, which gives the Gaffer options. We’re [Omar Bogle, Will Evans, Kiban Rai] all different strikers, all with different attributes,” he confirmed.
In terms of role models in the squad, Seb explained that it was Omar Bogle he looks up too and has built a working relationship with, in recent months: “Omar is a great role model to me,” stated Seb.
“He shows me how to do things, he speaks to me on parts of my game that I need to tweak, he helps with my positional play too so overall he’s been super helpful for me. As well as this we've built a great friendship too."
Next up this coming Saturday (November, 25) it’s Stockport County who visit Rodney Parade but Palmer-Houlden is confident the points gap in the league won’t phase how the side approach the tie: “It’s a big game and super exciting but football is football and anything can happen.
“A lot of people are writing us off already, as Stockport are currently on a winning streak, but you never know what can happen. I know we have the tools, we have the quality and players that mean we can definitely get a result from tomorrow.”
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