Grant's Crystal Palace Preview

For Conor Grant, Tuesday’s match against Crystal Palace has been ringed on the calendar for some time.

Conor missed the end of last season with a groin injury that required surgery, and then has suffered setbacks in the recovery process because of a recurrent calf complaint.

Recently, though, he had made four substitute appearances, with a late cameo of a few seconds followed by a handful of minutes of two occasions, and most recently he came on in the 68th minute in Argyle’s 4-1 win at MK Dons on Saturday.

He is set to start the Papa Johns Trophy tie against Palace, which Argyle go into knowing at a point will be enough to take the Pilgrims through to the next round of a competition they have traditionally failed in.

Pleasingly, Conor has continued to improve his physical fitness, and he is understandably keen to take advantage of his first starting berth since April.

“I’m feeling good,” he told Argyle TV. “I’m happy to be back involved, getting more minutes and obviously the lads are flying, so it’s been a lovely place to come back into.

“I’ve had my ups and downs. After the operation, I knew it was going to talk quite a long time to get back, and then in rehab I had a calf injury, so it was frustrating, but in those moments you have to dust yourself down and try to focus on getting back as quick as possible.

“The first two or three were just a few minutes off the bench; it was great just to be involved and to feel that buzz again, being around the stadium and feeling that adrenaline again. It’s been picking up recently, and Saturday was the most I have played. It felt good to be part of a win again, and playing my role in it.

“I’ve been able to get full weeks work in training for the last four or five weeks, building up towards this game.

“For me, it is so important to have a competitive game where there is something on it. It is ideal for me to build my minutes up, and the young lads have come in and done really well. There will be a blend of youth and experience which is good.

“When I was coming back, it was the one game pencilled in that I would get a good amount of minutes. In the league games at the moment, it is hard to predict what minutes I can get, because I am still building up and the lads are flying. I have to be patient.

“I’ll back myself all the time, but I am well aware of how well the team is doing, and I want to be part of that.”