Scott McKenna has spoken of his pride at leading out Nottingham Forest on his comeback from injury.
The defender was named captain by boss Chris Hughton for the Reds’ clash against Reading - his first appearance in the Garibaldi for almost two months after an ankle injury.
Joe Worrall has been skippering the side in Lewis Grabban’s absence of late, but missed out with a rib injury. And although the striker did make his own return from a spell on the sidelines, he was on the bench.
It meant McKenna wore the armband for the 1-1 draw as the summer signing made his 16th appearance for the club.
“I was delighted to be captain,” he said. “Of course me being the captain means that there are a couple of the boys missing, which isn’t ideal.
“But to be given that trust from the manager filled me with confidence.
“I have picked up a couple of injuries this season and I have missed far more games than I would have liked, but that is part of the life of being a professional footballer.
“I was back in training a couple of weeks ago and now have the opportunity to get back into the team.
“It is frustrating, it was just the way I landed. I went over on my ankle and I was out for six weeks. It is frustrating but that is what happens.
“Towards the end of the game I naturally started to fatigue a little bit as there is nothing you can do in training that matches a proper match against decent opposition. Hopefully I can build up some more minutes and start to get back to full fitness.”
Forest took the lead at the City Ground through a Tom Holmes own goal, but couldn’t hang on for the three points as Yakou Meite’s late strike left the spoils shared.
“It was a difficult game to come back into but I was delighted to be back out there,” said McKenna.
“I thought for large parts of the game we controlled the ball well. They had quite a few chances and we rode our luck at times, but we are disappointed to concede a goal with 10 minutes to go.
“It is still a good point for us at the end of the day, but I think we just need to be a bit more streetwise to see the game out and take all three points.
“But a point against good opposition is not the worst result for us.
“I thought we had a couple of decent breaks in the second half so it wasn’t like we were backs against the wall for the full game, we created some opportunities as well.
“The strength they had off the bench and to start with, they are good opposition and ultimately we are disappointed to have dropped two points - but it was a very good team we were playing.”
