KRIS Twardek is keen to follow his parent club’s philosophy and “get stuck in” as he adapts to the physicality of the Vanarama National League during his loan spell with Braintree Town from Millwall.

The 19-year-old winger has joined the Iron on an initial 28-day loan from the League One side and impressed in his debut in the 2-1 defeat by Chester last weekend.

Twardek has made three appearances for Millwall in this year’s Checkatrade Trophy, but knows that senior competitive football is important to his development and is looking forward to the more physical nature of the National League.

“The philosophy at Millwall is to get stuck in and get on with it to deal with the conditions that you’re faced with,” he said.

“So my parent club has got me ready for this level and I do feel ready for it.

“It’s a 28-day loan and there are four league games in that period.

“I saw that Forest Green and Lincoln were among them, which are two big games and that was a reason why I came here.

“You come for the biggest games in a loan period as you want to get yourself ready for the first team at your own club.

“Any time that you go on loan, you want to get experience playing against men and get used to playing at the highest level that you can.

“There is only so much reserve football that you can do and just getting this experience is invaluable.

“Having a loss is not what you want obviously but just the experience of playing in a men’s game and getting yourself closer to that first-team position is what you want.

“It’s a different test to what you see at under-23 level.

“There is definitely a realism to this football as they are playing for a result and there are better supporters so it gives you the feeling of importance to the game.”