Swindon Town

After a gruelling pre-season training programme, Bedwell spoke to Swindontownfc.co.uk to discuss his first few weeks as a first-team professional.

It's been very tough physically and mentally but I'm feeling fitter, stronger and a lot sharper after the last five or so weeks we've been back and over in Italy. I'm feeling a lot better now and am just waiting for the season to start.

You have to be a lot more professional with things like timings - you've got to be in a certain place at a certain time. Also there is no slacking whatsoever - if you're falling behind you're going to get a telling off whereas in the youth team you might get let off. It's a lot harder I think - the youth lads work hard but obviously it's a step up so you've got to work a lot harder to make the grade.

I look up to Wes massively. He's a good inspiration to have at the club. Obviously he's still young himself so I can relate to him a lot - there are a lot of different things non-footballing and footballing so it's great to have him there to look up to.

Every time you pull the shirt on you've got to be proud. I think it was Tony Adams who said 'you've got to play for the name on the front of the shirt and they'll remember the name on the back' so whether its five minutes, twenty minutes or half an hour - as long as you give your best in the time you've got that's all you can do really.

I'm definitely living the dream. I've lived the dream for the last ten or so years since I've been in the centre of excellence at the age of nine but obviously this was the dream - being in the first team. Obviously being number two at the moment as well it's fantastic and hopefully I can maybe make my debut this season and go from there.

I made a few appearances on the bench last season as a scholar so I feel like I've got that out of my system but I've done it and now I'm ready to move on to the next step if I get given the chance as and when I'm called upon.