Paddy Madden believes that promotion is the aim for Scunthorpe United this season as the squad begin their preparations for the new season.
The striker has returned, along with the rest of his team mates, to pre-season training and is encouraged by what he has seen so far.He said: “With the players that we’ve brought in, the aim has to be the top six. Our job last year was to stay up, we did that, and this season it is to push on.
“As a team we want to be promoted so if that happens I’ll be over the moon. I’ll judge myself on how many goals I score and I always hit around 20 goals in League One, so I’ll be looking for a minimum of 20 goals again.”
The 25-year-old was the Iron’s top scorer last season and is already working hard to help him towards his ambition of scoring 20 goals.
He believes that the pre-season is showing the squad to be in very good shape and explained that the hard work manager Mark Robins is putting them through is what all the players want to be doing.
He added: “Pre-season is going well. Every pre-season you have to get your head down, work hard to get your fitness back up. We’ve been off for two months so it’s important that we get our fitness back up and we’re raring to go for the start of the season.
“We’re all buzzing that we’re back because you get a bit bored a home so we’re excited to be back and enjoying it.
“We all have our programmes over the summer. The gaffer wanted us to take three weeks off resting and then after that we have our off-season programme to do, which has us doing all sorts of runs and lots of gym work.”
Madden has also been relieved to see his team mate, and good friend, Gary McSheffrey sign a new one year contract with the Iron recently.
“It’s great to have him around. He’s very experienced and helps me a lot with my game," he said.
"He’s a great lad, a great player and he has an unbelievable left foot so it’s good to have a winger like him that will provide me with the crosses I need.”
See much more from Paddy Madden and others on The Iron Player HD.