Club captain Liam Feeney spoke to Iron Player ahead of this weekend’s season opener against Yeovil Town at Glanford Park, which sees the Iron selected for live TV broadcast on BT Sport.
“We’re buzzing for it,” the midfielder began.
“It’s been a long time coming. We’ve had a good six-week pre-season, a lot of new faces have come in, and it’s exciting times.
Feeney revealed how different the atmosphere is now as we head into the 2022/23 National League season.
“It’s been really positive. There is a really good feeling around the place, and a lot of smiles on faces, even though we’ve been working extremely hard with the gaffer.
Touching more on the gaffer’s pre-season programme, he said: “It’s been good, a lot of football, building his philosophy and his ideas into the team.
“We’ve been going over that meticulously, with a lot of hard work in-between, and hopefully we get a great opportunity to show it on Saturday in-front of the TV cameras.”
Looking back at pre-season, and in particularly the Sheffield United friendly, drawing on the positives from the game he said: “It was a really good performance.
“It’s good to test yourself against players of that quality who are looking to get to the Premier League, and it just shows if we can put it all together, we can cause some issues against some good teams."
Discussing the mental side of the game, the 35-year-old said: “There has to be a shift in mentality at the club amongst the players.
“There’s a lot of new faces, so they won’t come in with a hangover of any negativity from what happened last season, which will boost the group.
“The players who are still here are eager and hungry to make sure we put it right and have a successful season getting the club back to where it should be."
Keith Hill has officially named the experienced midfielder as club captain ahead of the new season.
Talking on officially receiving the captain’s armband for the campaign, he said: “I’m extremely proud – what an honour to lead the boys out.
“I’m so thankful the gaffer put that faith in me and I know I have to work hard and demonstrate why the gaffer put the faith in me.
“Even though I have the armband on in the game, there’s an expectation from a number of lads to be leaders out on the pitch and to enforce the gaffer’s plan, philosophy and ideas as a group."
With experienced players in the building, Feeney believes the younger heads still too have their part to play this season.
“The gaffer gave them a lot of exposure to the first team footballing environment last year, which will only stand them in good stead," he said.
“Coming in this year, they’re under no illusions that they’re seen as a serious part of the group, and that if / when they’re called upon they’ll stand up and be counted."
It will be the Iron's first live TV appearance since May 2018, and the third time we've featured live on BT Sport following the FA Cup second round (replay) and third round games at Worcester City and Chelsea in the 2015-16 season.
Discussing if any added pressure will be applied due to the cameras, he said: “There shouldn’t be any added pressure, it should be nice.
“You get to show your footballing ability to the nation and people beyond so be excited, show everything you can do, and how hard we’ve worked over pre-season."
When queried on the player’s aspirations this season, Feeney said: “We have to be talking about promotion.
“We want to win every single game we go into. There’s not a game I look at and think we shouldn’t win that.
“If we want to have a positive season, we have to have that mentality otherwise there’s no point turning up."
With only two promotion spots up for grabs in the National League, Feeney is under no illusions that it is a difficult league.
He said: “Why not be us. We’re working hard, we’ve got a lot of new faces in the building, and the squad looks good.
“There’s a positive feeling around the place, let’s get off to a good start and really attack it.”
Ticket details for our home opener this Saturday are available to view here.
You can see much more from Liam Feeney and Keith Hill on Iron Player.