Familiar Faces Helped Ando to Settle at Town
Friday, 20th Sep 2013 11:30

Seeing so many familiar faces in the Town ranks was a welcome boost for recent signing Paul Anderson — even if he still found his initiation quite daunting.

As at most other clubs, new arrivals at Portman Road are required to entertain their new team-mates with a song and the winger obliged by opting for the Bruce Channel classic Hey! Baby, which featured in the film Dirty Dancing.

Anderson laughed: “The fact that I had previously been at Bristol City and Nottingham Forest, which meant I knew the likes of Dean Gerken, Cole Skuse, Luke Chambers and David McGoldrick, meant that when I had to sing it wasn’t quite as scary.

“It was alright, actually. I picked that song because everyone knows the lyrics and can join in. I can’t sing so I just mumbled a bit and just let everyone else have a go.”

But Anderson is keen to emphasise that the presence of several ex-colleagues made settling in easier than it might have been elsewhere.

He added: “It definitely helps. It’s always a bit intimidating when you go into a new changing room because you never know how people are going to take you and how long it is going to take for you to fit in.

“It does take time to gel with the other lads but having four or five here that I already knew made it a little bit easier for me. It’s been brilliant and the lads have been top drawer with me.

“I feel like I’ve fitted in pretty well and the gaffer’s given me an opportunity to get into the starting line-up. I feel like I’ve done okay — nothing too special but I feel like I’ve consolidated myself with some average performances and fortunately we’ve got the results when I’ve played.

“There is still a lot more to come. It was obviously difficult being in the transfer situation I was in because I wasn’t able to play games at Bristol so my level of match fitness was slightly behind everyone else’s.

“Also, when we were doing runs down there they wanted me to stay out of things because they didn’t want to risk me getting injured.

"I was a little bit behind on fitness but I feel like I’m back to full match fitness now. Hopefully I can lend a helping hand with a few goals and assists in the coming weeks and months.”

Photo: Action Images

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