Aaron Cresswell became just the 36th player in West Ham United history to reach 300 appearances in Claret & Blue when he stepped out onto the artificial turf of Silkeborg's JYSK park home on Thursday night.
A little over eight years on from his debut the for the Club, the 32-year-old told West Ham TV of his pride at reaching the landmark - but more importantly helping the team to an important 3-2 UEFA Europa Conference League Group B victory over the Danish side.
That meant the Hammers made it two wins from two at the start of our latest European campaign, keeping us at the top of the group, two points clear of our next opponents Anderlecht.
With tricky opponents and an unfamiliar surface to overcome, Cresswell was delighted to get the job done on a chilly evening in Jutland.
“It’s a great milestone and I’m proud to make 300 appearances for West Ham,” he smiled. “I never dreamt that I’d play that many when I joined West Ham to be honest.
“300 down, but more importantly tonight was three points in the group. These places aren’t easy to come to – and no excuses, but it’s really difficult with the [artificial] pitch. It’s not what we’re used to and to be fair to them they play some good stuff.
“After they scored the first goal I thought we controlled the game and felt we deserved the win."
Including the qualifying play-off round, the Hammers have now scored 12 goals in four Conference League matches this season, winning all four and building confidence along the way.
Now, with consecutive games against Anderlecht to follow, Cresswell insists his team will not be taking it easy as they aim to secure rapid progression to the knockout phase.
“We’ve just been talking about it inside the dressing room. We’ve now got Anderlecht back-to-back and we want to win all the games we play in this group," the No3 continued."
“We won’t rest on our laurels and think we’ve got easy games because we certainly haven’t. You’ve got to give these type of teams respect and I think we did that.
With a return to Premier League action rapidly coming into view - West Ham travel to Everton on Sunday - Cresswell lauded the quality in the east Londoners' squad following our summer transfer activity.
He believes the competition all over the pitch will only help us achieve our goals domestically and in Europe this term.
He added: “We had one of the smaller squads last year. We were really lucky with injuries which was a big factor in doing well in both the Premier League and Europa League.
“There’s competition all around the squad now which can only be healthy for the boys. To play Thursday-Sunday near enough every week isn’t easy and sometimes it’s good to have rotation.
“Look, we’ve got a fantastic squad now and we want to kick-on. We've got another quick turnaround now and another away game. We’ve got to recover as best as we can now. We stayed over in Denmark on Thursday night to prep and do everything right.
“It’s a tough game against Everton away and we’ll look forward to it.”
