Alex Baptiste has revealed that last season’s promotion winning campaign ranks among the greatest achievements he’s experienced in the game.
The veteran defender played a key role alongside fellow central defender Ricardo Almeida Santos as Wanderers took the second half of the season by storm to make an immediate return to Sky Bet League One.
And the former Blackpool and QPR player believes the bond he shares with his former Tangerines team-mates Ian Evatt and Matt Gilks made the celebrations extra special.
He said: “This promotion is right up there for me with anything I have done, especially with knowing the manager for so long and with people like Gillo and where we were at the start of the year.”
The defender, who joined Wanderers for his second spell with the club last summer, recalled that an element of luck at the turn of the year helped him to earn a regular starting spot.
He added: “I was talking to Ryan Delaney about this the other day. I was watching from the side and I think we’d played Exeter and Cheltenham and you could see we were just starting to turn the corner.
“Then we went to Tranmere and it was never a sending off against Ryan, nor was it a penalty.
“It was just that little bit of luck that turns a personal season around.
“He was doing excellent until then, he shouldn’t have been out of the team because he shouldn’t have been suspended, but I got a chance.
“I was really lucky to get a second chance and then went on to do well when we’d strung a few results together but Ryan was done by that referee’s decision.
“Obviously, I am happy I could contribute for the rest of the season and those games where we felt like we weren’t going to concede a goal, or the long run we went up to Bradford where nobody could score against us, that kind of thing for a defender is brilliant. I haven’t had that sort of thing before.
“Strikers were coming off the pitch saying they couldn’t get a kick, opponents were telling us how impressed they were with the way we play.
“That kind of thing keeps you going and I’m just glad we got there in the end.”
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