Two weeks after returning for pre-season, goalkeeper Luke Daniels cannot wait to get back to playing games.
The new season is a little over three weeks away, with the shotstopper – now wearing the number one jersey – looking ahead to the league opener at Burton Albion.He, however, acknowledged pre-season is an important time for the squad to gel together.
“It’s been good so far,” he told The Iron Player HD.
“It’s been tough so far too. We have been getting a lot of work done with the ball and things like that, so we are in a good place at the moment. We’re all feeling the benefit of it.”
Arriving in January following a broken arm a piece for both Sam Slocombe and James Severn, Luke has been handed the number one jersey for the forthcoming season and will have Joe Anyon battling away to try and win the starting position from him. It’s a competition he is looking forward to, however.
“As long as I’m playing in the games, the number doesn’t really matter,” he continued.
“It’s a status thing for goalkeepers, but at the end of the day it’s a number. It’ll be a massive season for us all and we’ve got to be at the right end of the table. We can all see what the chairman and manager are doing and who have been brought in. Anything less than that will be disappointing for us.
“It’ll be difficult because there are 24 teams who want to do the same thing. It’ll be a tough, tough slog for us, but we are more than up for the challenge.
“Personally, it’ll be a great challenge for me. I get on with Joe (Anyon) really well and Muzzy (Paul Musselwhite, goalkeeper coach) is putting us through it and it has been good so far.”
Speaking about the additions, the shotstopper is happy that quality has been added to the squad – stating it will only aid United’s chances in the league next season.
“The new lads are settling in well,” he stated.
“There’s a good group of lads coming in and it was already a good dressing room anyway. We’ve managed to bring in some quality quite early on in pre-season, so if there are one or two more additions, that would be great.
“If you want to get to the top of the table, you’ve got to bring in players of that quality and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
See much more from goalkeeper Luke Daniels on the new Iron Player HD.