Jack Shepherd spoke to the media ahead of our meeting with Blackpool on Saturday at Oakwell in Sky Bet League One.
ON TIME AT THE CLUB SO FAR
"I'm enjoying it! I've been asked before, it's a tough change to come into the environment, you've just got to adapt and keep working. All the lads have been perfect and the coaching staff. I've just got to keep putting in the hard work and hopefully it pays off."
ON BIGGEST LEARNINGS OF BEING A PRO SO FAR
"You'll obviously learn things on the pitch a lot more, but there's stuff off of the pitch which you don't realise. When you automatically think of a footballer you just think 'oh it's the high life', but it's a lot harder than what you think. It's a lot tougher on the legs, there's more fatigue. Some days you're not doing as much, but it's a lot tougher than working 9-5 Monday to Friday. It's taking some adjusting but hopefully I'm getting there."
ON BENEFITS OF PLAYING IN LOWER LEAGUES
"When I was at Pontefract and Penistone and teams like that, you're playing agaisnt a lot older players. Some of them in their late 30s. You still have young players, but a lot of them are big, fully-grown men so you get used to the battles. Hopefully, that physicality that you do get from non-league football helps you out in some games. When it becomes end to end, you've got to be physical and win your battles."
ON BLACKPOOL
"We've been through our stuff. We've got our own game plan and we just feel, with how we've been playing recently, that if we pull off our game plan we can beat anyone in this league. We're as good as anyone on our day. They've got a few good players going forward, good defensively. We've just got to be on our game like you have whether we're playing Blackpool or anyone. You've got to be on your game. I feel like if we are, then we can get three points."
