The Iron defeated Lincolnshire rivals Lincoln City on Saturday, winning 6-5 on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
Importantly for the confidence, United stayed unbeaten throughout pre-season and will be looking to progress during 2015/16.A new 3-5-2 formation has been tried out during the last few weeks, and Canavan believes he is adapting to his new role well.
He said: “It’s a change of formation and I think on the vast majority of the minutes we’ve had, we’ve played well, and we’ve moved the ball well.
"That’s been a real positive, but I think at times we just need to smarten up our game a little bit.
“It’s a new role and different things are asked of you there. The manager has recruited well this summer. You’ve got to have confidence in the guys around you, and in that formation I think we definitely have that at the minute.
"There are new challenges and different things asked of you in that different position. I’m just trying to take on as much as I can on the training ground and listening to the advice I’ve been given. Hopefully that will put me in a good shape to go out there on a Saturday and Tuesday’s.”
Having signed three players from Preston North End, a team who were deservedly promoted via the play-offs, Canavan believes their experience of getting out of this division will leave the team in a good shape.
He said: “They’ve got that experience of being promoted last year (Scott Laird, Scott Wiseman and Jack King) and that only breeds confidence. They came in already confident because they’ve played in this division and had success, and that rubs off on people.”
One more week of training is in store for the Iron’s players, before the big season opener on Saturday at Burton Albion.
Canavan says the excitement will start now on the training ground.
He said: “It’ll be interesting this week as the lads begin to get excited because the real thing is coming, and the lads start to tune up and really get into full gear. I’m sure training this week will be buzzing.”
See much more from Niall Canavan on The Iron PlayerHD.