INTERVIEW: Do it for the whole season

"The fun day is a great opportunity for us to interact with the fans and the community," he said. "It's important that the people who watch us every week can see how hard we work and it's great to be able to have a laugh with the children. They're our next generation of fans. 

"The players all enjoy things like this and it definitely helps that we always seem to get nice weather for it!" 

"Training has been tough so we're all just trying to get through the sessions and build our fitness up," he explained. "The game against Southampton was good last Friday because it gave us a chance to get some match sharpness against a good passing team. 

"It was good to get the rustiness out of our systems. It was great to be back out on the pitch, because it's been a while, and I think everybody got 45 minutes or so which was important. 

"I really enjoyed it and it's always nice to get two goals for a winger - I'm not a striker! It's always good to get back playing and it gave us all a chance to play with the new lads." 

"In all seriousness I'll play anywhere the gaffer wants me to, but I do think of myself as a winger," he confirmed. "I think I get the most out of myself when I'm wide on the left or right but I'll play wherever the manager wants me to. 

"It was obviously nice to get a lot of awards at the end of last season but, with the way things went, it didn't feel as good as it might have done if we'd stayed in the league. 

"I want to build on that this year. I think I need to get a bit more consistency about my game this season. Over two thirds of last season I felt like I performed quite well but I think I could have done better in the last third. I want to do it for the whole season this year."

And on the way things are taking shape, he said: "Kav has brought some really good players in and the squad is very competitive right now. Everyone is fighting for so many different positions and the manager is still looking to bring more players in. The squad is looking good and we've got a lot of hungry lads, so it's really exciting."

One of the new arrivals was, of course, his old room mate Troy Archibald-Henville and he admitted that he'd played a small part in persuading the big defender to come back up north.

"When I heard whispers that Troy might be coming back I just had to give him a ring," he revealed. "He stayed with me when he was up here last time and he's a great lad. 

"I told him he had to come back and I think the players and fans are all excited about him signing. He was a big player for us when he was here. He's great to have around the place and I'm really looking forward to playing with him again."