Malik Owolabi-Belewu spoke exclusively with 1866+ ahead of the Spireites’ Easter fixtures against Cheltenham Town and Barrow, talking about his time at the club so far and thoughts on playing in the left-back position.
“It’s definitely an experience for sure! Not my number one position, but it’s a position I’ve played here and there in the past for filling in for my past team, so it’s been fun. For a young player like myself, you just want to do whatever you can to get on the pitch. I’ll do what I have to do.
“Wherever they need me to play, I’ll play. It just happens to be at left-back. It’s been a learning curve for sure. It’s a different style of football to the one that was played in Canada. But again, these are the types of experiences that you learn from and that will push you when you go on in your career. I’m glad to be on the pitch and I’m enjoying every minute I can get.”
The 23-year-old then discussed the learnings he’s made so far playing alongside his defensive teammates in North Derbyshire.
“We have a very good squad. I know everyone says that, but I genuinely agree with that statement and I believe that. We have a lot of good players and, especially in the back line, there’s a lot of people to learn from. Even someone that’s a bit younger, like Sil Swinkels, he’s played more games in the EFL than me, so he’s someone I can learn from.
“The obviously you’ve got like Kyle McFadzean, Chey Dunkley, Janoi Donacien and Sam Curtis. It’s nice playing with them. I haven’t got to play with Tom Pearce yet or Lewis Gordon, but when that moment comes, it’ll be nice. I think each player has their own strengths and their attributes, and there’s something that you can pick up from each person when you play with them.
“The more games I can get with all of these guys, the better for me, especially with them having so much experience within this league and other english leagues. I just think that we have so many good players that are capable of doing the job when they get called to it.”
Reflecting on the importance of the 1-0 away win over Accrington Stanley, he added: “I think it’s massive. We all want to achieve the same thing and I think , in this run of games coming up, we need to start pulling out results consecutively in a consistent format and getting clean sheets is obviously just better for the long run as well.
“It just shows that we’re doing the right things, not only as a back five with the goalkeeper, but also as a whole team pressing from the front and working hard off the ball. So it was a very good win. In this period that we’re at in the season, it’s just massive for us to get wins and if we can stack as many wins and clean sheets as possible, it’ll put us in the best position to still try and achieve what we all want to do.”
Lastly, Owolabi-Belewu spoke about the side’s preparations to face Cheltenham Town this weekend.
“Preparations are going well. We’ve had a good week of training. Everyone’s working hard. We’ve been learning a lot, especially myself playing in that left-back role.
“Everyone’s just buzzing to go and we know that it’s an important two games coming up. We’ll obviously take it one game at a time, but I think the biggest thing for us is just to make sure we get three points in both games and nothing less.”
Match and hospitality tickets for the Cheltenham gave are still available here.
if you’re not heading to Barrow on Easter Monday, a live screening of the fixture is taking place at the SMH Group Stadium! Secure your place(s) here.
