Cody McDonald reflects on his winner at Valley Parade
With his third goal in four games, Cody McDonald was Gillingham’s goal hero at Bradford City but the in-form striker was quick to praise his team mates for the win, saying “It’s obviously great to get on the score-sheet again but you know a lot of the credit goes to the lads who really had to grind it out today.“We were under a lot of pressure in the first half and my personal performance wasn’t as great as what I would have liked but to come here and win is not easy and we’ve managed to do that today so it’s a massive positive for us.
“Our main aim is to get promoted but once you’ve done that obviously you want to win the League and go up as winners. The lads have been great this year and hopefully we can cement that place.”
McDonald was in the right place at the right time to secure the points with a 64th minute strike but admits he was surprised to get the sight of goal, explaining “It was a great ball from Deon but to be honest I though the keeper was going to come out and even when I looked up I thought I’m going to get clattered here.
“He sort of stayed back a little bit and I don’t mean to have a dig at him but I think he made it a little bit easy for me. I’ll take them all and you still have to stick it away and I managed to do that. You’re not going to get loads of chances in the Football League so you know you need to put those away.
“There were limited chances today for both teams because I thought both sides were really solid all over the park and, thankfully, I’ve managed to stick it away and that’s given us the three points.”
Cody has made a sensational start to life back at Gillingham and admits he’s enjoying his return to the club, adding “It’s important as a footballer to be playing every week, you’re not always going to have it your own way but when you’re not, you’ve got to work hard and try to cement your place in the team.
“Hopefully I can do that now, get a nice run of games together and things are coming together nicely for me now but most importantly it’s all about the team and if we perform like that until the end of the season we’ll take a lot of stopping.
“The Gaffer’s been brilliant, he’s made it clear what he wants the lads to do, he’s very thorough in his ways leading up to games. He’s supporting the lads, he’s looking after us on and off the pitch, it’s been great working for him so far and hopefully that can continue.”
And Cody pulls no punches about his plans for club stating, “I want to get Gillingham promoted! I want to play a big part in it because we’re where we are for a reason.
“Hopefully I can come away from this loan spell having got Gillingham promoted and who knows what happens next year. It’s a bit out of my hands at the moment, I’ve still got another year to go on my contract at Coventry but we’ll see what happens at the end of the season and see where we stand.
“It’s not nice sitting on the bench every week and turning up to games wondering if you are going to be involved. It does take its toll on the family, as well, when you’re living so far away from home, so it was nice to get the loan move back home and it’s going well so far.”
