First league goal ‘a long time coming’ – Martin

The striker opened his league account by finishing Antoine Semenyo’s cutback inside the second minute of the 1-0 win over Cardiff City on Friday night.

It was Martin’s second Robins goal, following his strike against Northampton Town in the Carabao Cup.

Since then the striker has proved himself as a hard worker across the pitch, with his holdup play not going unnoticed and he has contributed to four assists. He was, therefore, glad to be back on the scoresheet once again.

“It’s been a long time coming!” Martin told Robins TV in his post-match interview. “If I had my way, I would have got off the mark in the league sooner but I think it’s pay off for being unlucky in other games.

“I’ve provided assists for people so as a striker it’s nice to be on the end of it – it’s good to contribute and hopefully I can do that a few more times between now and the end of the season.

“It was a really good start and in the first 15-20 minutes I felt we were the better side. We had good attacks, got the goal from a really great team goal and it was nice to be on the end of that one.”

After going ahead the Robins had to be resolute but Martin was proud with how his teammates stood up to the challenge of the Bluebirds and hold out to earn the clean sheet in the Severnside derby but most of all, the three points.

“It’s a perfect start to the weekend,” he said. “It was a tough game and it showed in the second half, we were under a lot of pressure, balls in the box which we expected but I thought, on the whole, we dealt with it extremely well and we’re delighted with the three points.

“They (Cardiff) grew into the game, they had opportunities and they are dangerous from set plays with their height and physicality. I felt it was important we stood up to that, the Championship is full of that so it’s fantastic to get a result by showing those qualities tonight.”

City will return from the international break when they host Derby County in two weeks’ time (Saturday, November 21^st, 3pm KO), live on Robins TV.

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