Bradford City v Leyton Orient: Ex-Everton man Jenson Metcalfe gets 'goosebumps' after stepping out of shadows
AT former club Everton, Jenson Metcalfe was, by his own admission, in 'the shadows'.
On-pitch events in recent months at Bradford City have very much catapulted him into the spotlight and last weekend, he received very public acclaim.
The midfielder, whose penchant for long-range strikes – not to mention elegant performances in the middle of the park – have come to the fore throughout the winter, was feted in song by the Bantams' sizeable travelling support in last weekend's game at Reading.
It was testament to Metcalfe's importance and certainly well deserved. While he won't be getting carried away with it, it was nice to hear all the same.
He said: "It's brilliant. I didn't really want to touch on it, but I'm going to because that's the first ever chant I've had for me.
"And it did give me little goosebumps because obviously the ball wasn't in play at the time.
"So I could appreciate it a little bit and could actually hear it. Whereas usually, when you're in the game mode, you don't really hear what's going on. And I thank them (supporters) for that.
"There's a few lads who mentioned it on the training pitch at the beginning of the week.
"I feel like a first-team player now. And that's why when I spoke a few months ago, I felt like I was just amongst the shadows of my last club.
"It's nice to be part of it (here)."
Wigan-born Metcalfe is forming an impressive partnership alongside Max Power, who hails from not too far away on the Wirral.
There may have been a bit of training-ground chatter towards Metcalfe from Power and his Bantams cohorts regarding his recognition at Reading, but City's influential captain also looked out for young team-mate in a different way this week.
Metcalfe added: "He has words (with me).
"The other day, he sent me a clip from training about arriving in the box and it's just nice to see that someone knows what aspects there are for me to improve in my game.
"He is looking out for me when watching training back to send them to me and we have a little chat about them.
"It was just nice when I saw the message come through.
"Clips are just improvements, you won't really clip things when you're doing something very good.
"You'll more look at where you can improve and then the only thing you can do is take it to your next game.”