By Lloyd Webb
It has been an eye-opening few months for Matt Macey.
The young goalkeeper celebrated his 21st birthday in September and was soon called up to the Arsenal first team as cover for Petr Cech for six consecutive games, including the home and away fixtures against Bayern Munich.
Macey says that experience has boosted his self belief and he hopes that it can also help the under-21s continue their unbeaten run when they host Stoke City on Friday.
"A big part of my job is to lead from the back"
Matt Macey
“It gives you confidence coming into games like this and I have worked hard in training,” he told Arsenal.com. “The confidence is massive. It is what you dream of.
"The next step is to play but you have to be patient and wait your turn. You have to think you are ready when it happens.
“When you come back down to this level you have to help the younger lads. When you come down you have to play as you would in the first team and have the right approach - that is what I’m working on.
“As an older player in this team, a big part of my job is to lead from the back and organise at set-pieces as that is the sort of thing we may struggle with. I just let the other players do their thing at the other end of the pitch.”
Follow @Arsenal on Twitter from 6.55pm (UK time) on Friday for live updates from the game against Stoke City.
Matt Macey
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