Joel Colwill was on press duty at Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday morning, previewing the Bluebirds' clash with his former side, Exeter City.
The 21-year-old spent the second half of last season on loan at St James Park, making 18 appearances for the Grecians, and will now face off against his former teammates this weekend.
"I'm looking forward to it." Joel began. "It will be nice to go back and play against some of the boys. It was a great experience for me in my career, going down there and moving away from home, fighting to play in a League One team. The manager there at the time was really good to me, the boys down there were brilliant, so I'm really looking forward to it.
"I think it's helped me loads. It's taught me how to get into the team, how to keep a place in the team, how to train, how to have conversations with people. It helped me grow up as a player and as a person, so I think all-round it was really good for me. Playing under different managers and different people, I learnt different ways to play.
"I got on well with a lot of them there, so there's probably a bit of bragging rights to see who wins. Of course, I want to win every game I play in, no matter who I'm playing, but it will be a fun game."
The midfielder has been in fine form for Brian Barry-Murphy's side in recent weeks, scoring three goals and producing one assist since January 24th. Joel spoke about his recent purple patch, and how he has worked hard to consistently improve his performances.
He said: "I've tried to get consistency in playing a lot of games in a run. I want to get my numbers up, my goals and assists up. I think in the recent period I've got a couple in there, but I want to get more again. To get some more numbers in to match performances will be nice.
"A lot of my finishes have been very similar to finishes I've been working on in training, so it's nice to see some of them come out in games. For my positioning, we watch clips of where to go, working on the half turn so I can turn quicker and get to positions better. I've worked on those things every day, and I'm continuing to work on those things every day to get more goals and better numbers.
"I think the squad is so good, that if you don't train well and you're not putting the effort in in training, you've got no chance [of playing]. I think everyone realises that, and it's driven the standard of training up so high this season. Everyone is at it, every day, and that's been a big part of our season. The quality of training has been so high, and then we can take that into games. Brian likes us to be at it at all times, ready so we're all prepared for the game. I quite enjoy it. I think my intensity and my running numbers have all gone up through the season, and I think that's because of the way we're training.
"I think when you're not playing, you're not happy, but I tried to go about it in a positive way, ask questions and see why I wasn't playing so I could improve. I try to go in every day, give 100% and give the best account of myself to play. That's all you can do as a player, really."
Watch more from Joel and Brian Barry-Murphy on Cardiff City TV.