Palmer champing at the bit for a Mansfield Town starting place

Right now he is having to make do with bit parts from the bench and almost bagged a stoppage time equaliser in the midweek 1-0 home Johnstone’s Paint Trophy defeat by Chesterfield, only to see keeper Tommy Lee pull off a great save.

Ahead of tomorrow’s League Two visit of Bristol Rovers, Palmer admitted: “I have had to be patient. The squad has been doing well and you don’t change a winning side. They’ve been picking up good results home and away.

“Fingers crossed my time will come soon and I will get on the field and start taking chances.

“I didn’t come here expecting to be straight into the side. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be starting games, though.

“I have not come here to sit on the bench and come on for 20 minutes here and there. Every player at this club wants to start or you wouldn’t be a footballer. And there is a lot of competition up there.

“I have to bide my time and show the gaffer what I can do and earn my starting place.”

Palmer has now moved into the area and started to come to terms with suddenly becoming a full-time professional footballer after a successful part-time career scoring goals at Havant and Waterloovile and Woking.

“I feel a lot more settled now,” he said. “My missus is spending all my money, turning it into a home and I feel a lot more comfortable. Once I start scoring goals I will be a lot happier.

“We have all the facilities here. I have had to strengthen up certain areas of my body. I go to the gym a lot with Ryan Tafazolli, who has been helping me as he has been a professional for a long time. I want to be the best I can be.”

Palmer thought he had levelled the game on Tuesday until the keeper managed to get up and get his hands to it to tip the ball over.

He said: “I snapped at it with my left foot. I didn’t have a lot of time as players were coming at me from all angles. I thought it was going in but it’s just one of those things.

“The boys put in a really good shift and, if we’d taken our chances on the day, we would definitely have got a lot more out of it.

“Bristol Rovers will be a tough match, we all know that. They will see we’ve just lost two games and will be hoping to come here and take advantage, thinking we are on a bit of a downhill slope at the moment. But it’s just a blip.”