Kopite Thomas Anthony Hewitt gives the Official Site his views on the start of the campaign following the Magpies…
The 24-year-old from Clifton is the club’s first blogger this season, but we are looking for more supporters to contribute, see the bottom of the story to see how you can get involved.
I must be honest with you all. After watching the excitement that is the FIFA World Cup in Brazil earlier this summer, my optimism for the domestic footballing season ahead is extremely high, especially after our great escape at the end of the previous campaign.
What we did was nothing short of extraordinary, especially when you consider the predicament we found ourselves in, but, I never lost faith and I firmly believed that a miracle would happen and thankfully for us it did.
I’m really pleased with how the summer has transpired in regards to our club in the transfer department.
We have made some excellent and eye catching signings over the summer and our manager, Shaun Derry, has been given a full pre-season to mould the squad as he sees fit. I truly believe that given over the course of the campaign, on paper, our squad has the potential and ability to challenge for a top six spot this season, provided we are fortunate with injuries and suspensions.
Yes, as most people have said, most of our first eleven maybe over thirty years old and may lack the pace that a younger player would possess, but, as a famous person once said: “They’re just like fine Wine, they get better with age.”
We now have the experience to deal with tougher situations on the pitch that would’ve lost us valuable points last season, as well as natural born leaders in the dressing room which, if were honest, we didn’t have that many of last season, who can pass on their valuable knowledge and guidance to help nurture, relax and calm down our young members of the squad which will hopefully, allow them to express themselves more freely on the pitch.
This current campaign has started off to a reasonably good start (If you don’t count the Capital One Cup loss to Sheffield Wednesday, who, if were honest, were a step up in class above us!).
The opening draw at Preston was a great point to achieve and the players showed the hunger, passion and desire to make sure that we left Deepdale with something that afternoon.
If we play like that away from home this season, then I’m confident that we’ll leave these grounds with something this campaign.
The home games against Fleetwood and Colchester were both in complete contrast to each other. We need to keep our performances at home at a consistently high level standard, if were to have a chance of breaking into the top six this season.
Our players do have the ability to keep the ball on the ground and cut through defences, we just need to play to our strengths, keep possession more comfortably, frustrate the opposition with our movement and give the ball to our wide men who have the ability and pace to run past and break defences lines.
I feel that Roy Carroll and Jake Cassidy have been our best signings of the summer so far. They’re talented, driven and passionate about the game and have the ability to improve our squad in their respective roles. Hopefully, they’ll be more to come.
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