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Sport

The Shouting Men column with Gillingham defender Luke O'Neill

By: Luke Cawdell lcawdell@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 00:00, 05 April 2019

Updated: 07:20, 05 April 2019

The best free-kick I’ve scored this season was at Luton but I don’t practise them.

Some people might say, ‘well you would be a lot better if you did’, but I think maybe I would overthink it.

I cross the ball all the time so I have got the natural ability and when I step up for free-kicks I feel confident and fancy myself to at least hit the target.

Luke O'Neill celebrates the second equaliser against Luton Picture: Ady Kerry

Maybe around the box at other places I’ve not been first-choice, but I’ve scored three free-kicks here this season.

I would be lying if I said I looked back at clips of other people, like David Beckham. I just feel confident when I step up. We do a lot of crossing and finishing and I feel like I have the right technique.

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I just want to keep doing well now for the last six games, hopefully get a few more assists and chip in with some goals, too, which would be nice.

I have loved the last two years here, it has been the best two years in my footballing career.

The enjoyment, especially with the lads, I have felt part of it. The banter and everything is really good.

I have played a lot of games and I feel like I have done well over the two seasons.

I am obviously out of contract this summer but all I am interested in doing now is keeping my head down, doing well and seeing where that leaves me.

I did well when I played at Scunthorpe and other places but my football here has been up there and I feel that the gaffer has brought confidence out of me.

He has been brilliant, as have the rest of the senior staff, including Patto (first-team coach Mark Patterson). The boys and the fans have been brilliant since I have been here.

I think I have grown up a bit since coming here. You can see the ins and outs and you know what to expect in certain games. I have learnt a lot.

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What I need to concentrate on now is playing as many games as I can until the end of the season and doing well.

Once the season is over I’ll go away and have a nice summer, away with the family.

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We have Byrner’s (Mark Byrne) stag do as well in Portugal. A few here are going and I think Marts (Lee Martin) and Waggy (Scott Wagstaff) might be heading there too. It should be good, but that’s not what we’re thinking about now. We’re at Peterborough on Saturday and head there in a bit of form.

We were disappointed not to have beaten Rochdale at the weekend but towards the end of that game they frustrated us a bit – wasting time, going down with cramp and stuff – but we are experienced and we know that is going to happen.

It’s a crucial part of the season. They are struggling, a lot of teams are still in it down the bottom and every point counts. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing, stay as a unit, score as many as we can and shut the opposition out. We feel like we are doing well at the moment.

We had a few decisions that didn’t go our way against Rochdale and I thought the shot I had was a handball.

It was going in the direction of where the goal was. I am going to claim that penalty and you always should do because you never know. We didn’t get the decision and it did wind me up a little, I’m not going to lie. I wanted another goal!

All you do by protesting, though, is get yourself in trouble. It just annoys the ref and then you might not get decisions you should get.

I did go a little mad, but it was spur of the moment. It felt like the right thing to do at the time. Luckily while I did that the boys had it sorted because play didn’t stop!

We are doing really well at the minute and we are positive. I have put the relegation battle to the back of my mind.

I know what we’re capable of and we’re playing some good football, like we showed against Rochdale. We are more than capable of being a mid-table team and maybe higher but we’ve been hit-and-miss at some stages this season.

We’re hitting a bit of form now and hope it continues until the end of the campaign.

I feel like I have picked up from where I left off last year. Hopefully that can continue, I can get a few more goals and assists and help the team move up the table.

Peterborough are looking to get into the play-offs and we are trying to get as high as we can. It will be an interesting game.

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