FORMER Forest Green captain Lee Fowler says he has a point to prove after joining Oxford United until the end of the season, writes Mark Edwards.
Fowler revealed to the Oxford Mail that he had agreed to join United 14 months ago, when Darren Patterson was in charge.
But despite everything being agreed, Patterson was sacked and the move was called off.
Now, however, he is desperate to make up for lost time.
“It’s a big move for me,” he said. “There was interest from a League club and Forest Green, but the size of Oxford, the manager, the players and the whole set-up here meant that this was always going to be my first choice.
“I thought I was coming here a year ago - everything had been agreed with Darren Patterson, but then he was sacked so it fell through.
“I left Forest Green in the summer and joined Kettering and things started well for me.
“But then Mark Cooper left for Peterborough and everything went wrong.”
The midfielder was at the centre of the storm that saw Kettering assistant manager John Deehan sacked minutes after their FA Cup defeat at Leeds last month.
Having already said he wanted to leave the club, Deehan brought Fowler on as a substitute with the match level at 1-1, only for Leeds to then score four quick goals.
Kettering chairman Imraan Ladak was cricital of Fowler and Deehan - saying: “We have a player here who has made it clear he doesn’t want to be at the club,” said Ladak.
“When someone’s uncommitted off the field, they are that uncommitted on the field.
“He came on and we conceded four goals. I think things would have been different if he hadn’t been on the pitch.”
However, Fowler was keen to put the episode behind him: “I feel sorry for Kettering fans,” he said.
“It’s a sinking ship there now and I’m glad to be out of there.
“I asked to leave the club two months before the Leeds game because the travelling from Wales was too much, but for the chairman to question my intergrity was disappointing to say the least.”
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