Danny Fitzsimons admits his loan spell at Greenwich did him the power of good and he’s now looking forward to nailing down a regular spot at Margate.

Defender Fitzsimons marked his Hartsdown return after a highly productive month with the Ryman League Division 1 South club by producing an outstanding display in Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Hemel Hempstead.

The 24-year-old former Luton player got the nod at centre-half ahead of Yado Mambo, who dropped to the bench, and he admitted it was great to be back.

The last of his two previous Gate appearances had been against Weston-super-Mare on August 27. He signed for the Blues in June having missed the whole of last season due to a knee injury.

Fitzsimons, a former Republic of Ireland Under-18 international, explained: “I’m over the moon to be back playing. I went on loan to Greenwich and played nine games there, they’re a strong team in that league and I got some good minutes in.

“I was going to go for a second month but the gaffer (Gate boss Nikki Bull) called me back. I feel right now, the spell at Greenwich did me a power of good. I just needed minutes that was all and I’ve got that in the bank now so hopefully I can push on here.”

Fitzsimons had spells at Millwall and QPR as a youngster before joining Histon where his form caught the eye of Luton boss John Still, who signed him for the Hatters in June 2013.

He injured his knee soon after the move which restricted his opportunities and he had loan spells at Bishop’s Stortford and Brackley before the League 2 club released him in May 2015.

A month later Fitzsimons signed for Dartford, but he suffered a recurrent cruciate injury in pre-season which ruled him out for the entire campaign.

His move to Gate came about after a lengthy period of rehabilitation which began at Millwall and Fitzsimons says he will always be grateful to the League 1 club for that.

Fitzsimons who lives in Bermondsey, added: “I missed last season and the season before that I played a bit and then I was out, I had two recurring cruciate injuries. It was tough but I had family and friends around me and I had myself as well, I just wanted to get myself back out there.

“I did my rehab down at Millwall, they looked after me fantastically. I was there as a kid all through the youth team and I knew the physio. They took me in and looked after me and set me on the road to recovery.”