Neville glad to be back

First appearance of the season for United skipper

Last updated: 9th April 2008

gary neville comeback roma

Neville: Thanks fans

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Manchester United captain Gary Neville was delighted to have made his first appearance of the season as he came on as a second-half substitute against Roma.

Neville played the last ten-minutes of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg win, as he helped United play out the 1-0 win, which came courtesy of a Carlos Tevez header.

Neville had not played a first-team match for 13 months after damaging his ankle against Bolton and then suffering numerous set-backs in training.

But the England international was pleased to be finally back playing.

"It means everything, it has been so frustrating," he told Sky Sports.

"The initial injury was quite a bad one but ever since then it has just been little niggles that have just kept coming. I just think sometimes that happens when you have a serious injury but hopefully now I think I have had the most consistent run of training without interruption and hopefully I can stay fit."

Relishing run-in

Neville is hoping he can make up for missing last year's run-in to the season by playing a part this time around.

"Missing the end of last season was bad, I am coming back now where I missed last year..the European Cup quarter-finals, semi final, the Championship run and an FA Cup final, so hopefully I can play small part at the end of this season," he continued.

As expected Neville received a hero's welcome from the Old Trafford faithful.

"It was a good reception," he said. "Constantly over the last 12 months people have been asking me and it gets a a bit embarrassing to be honest and you give them dates because you think your coming back but it never materialises, the fans have always been great to me and they were tonight."

Neville is now relishing the forthcoming semi-final clashes with Barcelona.

"Two unbelievable games of football to look forward to and two great football teams who play the game the right way, attacking football, anyone who is a football fan will be tuning in that night," he said.

"You think the pitch is big here, it is big there [Barcelona] and they make it as big as possible, spread the play and keep the ball but they always give you a chance and that is the way Barcelona play and the other years, when we won the treble we had two 3-3 draws with them."