Bender: It’s worth the 200 mile drive!

NEW Accrington Stanley loan signing Thomas Bender, believes that the 200 mile trip to Accrington from his home in Essex is completely worth while.

The 18-year-old left back completed his season long move to the Crown Ground on Tuesday afternoon after making the long trip north on Sunday evening to begin discussions with Reds gaffer John Coleman.

“I spoke to the manager at Colchester and just asked about the possibility of going out on loan, just to get some games under my belt,” he told the official website.

“I found out on Friday that there might be a possibility of going on loan with Accrington and it wasn`t until Sunday that I actually found out that I was coming up here. I drove up straight away.

“It`s not the easiest thing to do but all I want to do is play games but I`m more than happy to drive 200 miles if it means I`m going to be playing football.”

The youngster looks likely to go straight into Accrington’s side to play Barnet on Saturday afternoon and is hoping that Stanley’s supporters will support his style of play.

“I can play either centre back or left back and the Accrington fans can always expect to see 110% effort from me and nothing less. I`m never going to shy out of a challenge or anything like that. I`m not saying I`m a dirty player but I don`t mind throwing myself about a bit if it`s got to be done. If I`ve got to put my body on the line to save a goal then I`ll do that and I`m sure that over time the fans will see that.”

“I made my debut for Colchester at 16, nearly two years ago now. Then I was a bit naïve, thinking that I`d be playing every week and looking back on it now I know that was never going to happen. But being involved with a first team at such a young age makes it very hard to not be involved after that. That`s why it`s good for me to come up here, be involved in the first team a lot more and hopefully get some more games under my belt.”