Ex-Blades player Woolford ready to prove critics wrong at Town

The 30-year-old teamed up with his old Scunthorpe boss Nigel Adkins at Bramall Lane in the summer of 2015 but after Adkins’ departure this summer Woolford says he was never given a chance by new Blades boss Chris Wilder.

Now the Castleford-born midfielder is ready to prove him wrong at Highbury.

He said: “The new manager, for whatever reason, decided on his second day in charge that I was not going to be part of his plans so I was straight on the transfer list and never got a chance to try and turn things around there.

“From that point of view it was disappointing because on the back of a bad season I’d gone away in the summer, I’d grafted. I’d worked hard and I was ready to fight for my place and prove people wrong but I never got given that chance.

“Pre-season from coming back really fit after the summer you kind of go backwards a little bit as the lads are getting the games, getting the football and the proper training.

“I wasn’t getting that really so it was disappointing in that respect but again it is fuel for the fire and it just makes me more hungry to do well.

“I was training on my own at times, I was left behind when the lads went on pre-season tour which I can understand because he’d made it clear I was not part of his plans.

“On the other side of it, as I said to him (Wilder), it was disappointing that I never got chance to show him what he had there in front of him.”

Woolford is not expecting a great reception from the Sheffield away following.

He said: “I’m man enough to take that on board, whatever is thrown my way I’m ready to just get on with things if anything it will spur me on even more.

“One of the big things actually is I gave the fans a thumbs up on the last game of the season and for some reason some of the fans thought that I had stuck two (fingers) up.

“It was a thumb, I’ve told them that, but they don’t seem to be listening. But it is what it is and it is water off a duck’s back really.”