Bennett gets up to speed at Reading

ALAN BENNETT is being worked hard at Reading in a series of gruelling training sessions.

Yet to play a game for either the reserves or the first team, the former Cork City defender has been working with sports scientist Jon Goodman while Royals boss Steve Coppell carefully monitors the player’s progress after his long lay off since the end of the eircom League season last November.

“I have noticed a difference in training,” says Bennett. “It is really, really quick and very well organised. I was in the other day with Jon Goodman and he nearly killed me. I think I left a lung out there!

“I have never worked with a sports scientist before. One came to Cork just this year but I never worked with him so it’s all new to me. With me, it’s not so much about a lack of fitness, it’s finding my touch and getting that back. They are working me hard but being sensible and not pushing me over the top.

“I don’t know when I will be ready. They are talking about the Chelsea reserve game next week.”

Off the pitch, Bennett is busy settling into his new home — an apartment in the same block in which his fellow Irishmen Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt live.

“I am just across the road from Doyler and Hunty,” says Bennett. “Doyler and his girlfriend Jenny have been great. I don’t have a TV yet so I am over there every night.

“I rang home the other day and my mum thought I was getting a Wexford accent. She didn’t know which was worse — that or an English one!”