TAYLOR READY TO BUILD ON HIS LOAN SUCCESS ON CITY RETURN
CONNOR Taylor believes in himself to stake a claim at Stoke City after a stand-out season on loan at Bristol Rovers.
The 20-year-old centre-back was nominated for League Two’s young player of the year award and won Rovers’ own young player of the year award as he helped secure a dramatic final day promotion from League Two. He had made one sub league appearance before he made the move and ended up playing in 47 games this season.
He can feel the benefit of the experience and the responsibilities given to him by manager Joey Barton.
“Coming here has made me realise what first-team football is all about,” he said. “You won’t get a promotion every year so you’ve got to enjoy this, but I fully believe in myself to come back (to Stoke), whenever I do, and stake a claim.
“I’ve been fully concentrated on Bristol Rovers but from what I’ve seen there have been lots of positives and plenty of young players being given a chance, so it can only be a positive thing. The main thing was the responsibility I’ve been given. I’ve not played alongside someone who has played hundreds of games all season. It’s just been me and a fellow 20-yearold.
“I’ve had to have the responsibility of being a leader back there for the team and I’ve had to learn on the job without someone experienced alongside me. That can only help me.
“On a personal level, it’s helped me massively. I’ve been surrounded by experienced people, people that have played at the top level like Glenn Whelan and Paul Coutts. I’ve learned lots off them and it’s been a surreal experience.”
Whelan had come through the Manchester City youth team with Barton and was a key figure at the age of 38. This was the fourth promotion of his career, following success at Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa and, of course, Stoke, where Taylor used to watch him as a supporter.
“It’s just his character,” said the defender. “Every day in training, he’s the first one on the training pitch and the last one to leave. He trains like every day is his last and you can go up and speak to him if you need any advice.
“He’s been absolutely brilliant for me. We’ll have conversations at dinner and speak to him about how I used to watch him as a kid and stuff like that. It’s been good to have those conversations.”
It was a pretty remarkable season for Bristol Rovers, who climbed from bottom half to seal promotion thanks to a 7-0 final day win over Scunthorpe, when Taylor scored his third goal of the campaign. The margin of victory saw them draw level with Northampton on goal difference and overtake them on goals scored.
Taylor said: “It’s been an unbelievable experience. I’ve experienced all the highs and lows of football. At the start of the season, we were really struggling and on January 1 we were 17th in the league. To get automatic promotion, it’s just unbelievable.
“We were going into the game knowing we were likely going to need a hand from Barrow against Northampton, but all we were focusing on was winning the game of football and seeing what happened with that result.
“At half-time, we were 2-0 up and we knew they were 3-1 up so we were going to need seven. It was a relaxed feel at half-time because we knew we could go out in the second half with nothing to lose.
“We were 4-0 up with about half an hour to play. We were looking at the clock thinking we had plenty of time because they were backs to the wall, the crowd was right behind us and we looked at the clock and told everyone to relax and if we carried on playing as we had done since the turn of the year, we’d get chances.
“Luckily we had plenty of them and we stuck them in the back of the net.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable. We were all gobsmacked really. We just couldn’t believe what we’d done. It can’t have ever happened before to win 7-0 on the final day of the season to get promoted.”
On a personal level the loan has helped me so much. I’ve learned lots off the experienced guys