On-loan Norwich City defender James Husband is still hoping to be involved in the League One promotion mix during the final months of the season.
The left-back kept Fleetwood Town’s play-off chances alive with a spectacular free-kick, finding the top-left corner from around 25 yards, to rescue a 1-1 home draw with Gillingham in the 90th minute on Saturday.
That equaliser from Husband – who’s contracted to Norwich until 2020 – kept Joey Barton’s team in ninth place and six points adrift of the top six with 11 games remaining.
“Every person in that changing room believes it’s still do-able and we will go until it’s not,” the Canaries loanee said. “We managed to grind out a point and as long as there’s a chance we will give it a go.
“We feel we have a lot more control in a football game than we had at the start of the year. Everyone knows their role and each other’s and we’re starting to see a week-by-week level of consistency.
“We have full confidence in the way we are playing.”
NCFC LOANS: Watch the important goals scored by Oliveira, Abrahams and Husband
Husband joined Norwich from Middlesbrough in the summer of 2017, for a reported fee of £500,000, which could have potentially risen to £1m with performance-related add-ons.
The 25-year-old made 22 appearances during Daniel Farke’s first season and started the first game of this campaign due to injury to Jamal Lewis, being taken off in the 63rd minute of a 2-2 draw at Birmingham in August.
The loan to Fleetwood followed and he has featured regularly for the Lancashire side, making 24 appearances, with a second chance at City looking unlikely following the January signed of German left-back Philip Heise from Dynamo Dresden.
His free-kick against the Gills was his first goal in over five years, since scoring for Doncaster in the Championship in August 2013 – and joked he will try to stay on set-pieces now.
“They said they thought it was a cross but I used the weather conditions nicely! It’s nice to get my first goal,” Husband added, speaking to the Blackpool Gazette. “I’ll be on them (free-kicks) every week. He (Barton) can’t take me off them now!
“If Ross Wallace is on the pitch, then he will probably take it but it was nice to chip in with a goal and get a point that we probably deserved.”
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