ACCRINGTON Stanley's Sam Finley insists he has learned his lesson after serving a five-match suspension following an altercation with Charlton's Lyle Taylor.

The midfielder added how he is coming back in to the fold with a renewed vigour.

Finley knows he has to channel the 'red mist', but thinks he wouldn't be the same player if it wasn't there in some aspect.

"Of course. I’m sat here with you all looking at me now and it feels like I’m in a court room.It’s lesson learned and it’s killed me," said Finley.

"I’ve missed Derby on BT and Sunderland on Sky. It’s never ending, I’ve missed two big games that were live on the TV. It’s absolutely killed me.

"It’s only given me that extra incentive to come back and hopefully get back in the team.

"I’ve always loved playing football since I was five years old. I’ve always kicked a ball and I love it, I don’t think I’ll ever fall out of love with it.

"Taking away doing a job that you love is the worst, no money can take that away from me. It’s terrible."

Finley is excited to get back on to the pitch and hopes to help his side kick on after winning on Tuesday night.

"I’m looking forward to it, it’s been difficult not being involved in the patch that we’ve had.

"It’s not been a great patch for us, it never really is over the Christmas period, as the gaffer likes to point out," added Finley.

"It’s always a weird patch for Accy that we can’t seem to get through. At the start of the season we were riding the wave from last season, we might have underestimated the league a little bit.

"We’ve come in to this season and started off very well – we were ninth or 10th for a while, in and around the play-offs.

"It comes to the Christmas period, where there’s a lot of games and I think teams in this league have got bigger and better squads than us.

"It’s been tough and it’s been a bit of a reality check for us. The result on Tuesday was massive, on Friday I thought we were quality.

"All the lads put in a great shift and we did really well. Hopefully, that’s a little turning point for us and we can kick on in to Saturday."

The midfielder accepts he needs to curve the aggression he has in his game.

"Look, it’s in me. I’ve spoken to certain managers over the years, certain players and my agent – I don’t think you can take that away from certain players, it’s in them," said Finley.

"The top players always have that little bit of aggression, that hunger.

"If you took that out of my game, then you take part of the player out and I wouldn’t be the same player. Yes, I do need to learn to curve it."