Paul Benson: Being benched is no substitute for a place in the team

11 April 2012

To be a substitute is a nightmare situation for any footballer. I've been lucky enough to start regularly for both Dagenham and Charlton in the last four-and-a-half years but now I haven't started a game since 3 January and I want to be playing football.

When you're in the manager's first-choice XI, you've got something there at the end of your training week whereas in this situation you're training but you know there's no end product.

On Thursdays, you know whether you're in the team or not because there's a practice game involving the first team against the players out of the side.

In my position, you just have to train that extra bit harder to prove that you should be in the side.

People mention going to speak to the manager but it is more difficult to do that if the team are winning - as we are at the moment. If I was in the team at the moment, I'd hope to carry on playing because we've won three on the bounce.

So I can't really blame our new manager, Chris Powell (right), for not being in the side.

Instead, I've got to look at doing enough in training to get into his plans.

Sometimes you just need that little twist of fate to go in your favour - and you're away. In 2005-06, my first season at Dagenham, I'd play one game and be out the next, just stop-start all the way through the season.

It looked as though it would be the same situation the following year but I came on as a sub and scored in a game at Aldershot early in the season.

The player who had been starting in my position, Cliff Akurang, couldn't play in the next match because he was ill, so I started and I scored again.

The following game, I played ahead of Cliff and I made it three goals in three games - and pretty much stayed in the team from then on until I left Dagenham last summer.

Had Cliff not been ill, I'm pretty sure he'd have stayed in the team, I'd have stayed on the bench and who knows what might have happened?

So while I'd never wish injury or illness on any team-mate, I know how quickly things can change and I have to be ready if something does happen so I can take my chance as I did before.

My team-mates have all been great since I've been out of the side. I drive in to training with Johnnie Jackson and Alan McCormack, both of whom have been telling me to keep doing what I was doing in training when I was in the team and scoring goals.

I also sat next to Christian Dailly, who played in the 1998 World Cup for Scotland, on the coach on the way to Yeovil last Saturday. He stressed the importance of not giving up in training because that's when it will start to go wrong.

I've never been like that anyway and I'm not about to start. Hopefully things will turn around soon.

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