Opening day win reaction from Nuttall

Attacker Joe Nuttall spoke to Iron Player about his side's strong display in the 2-1 victory over Yeovil Town on the opening day of the National League season.

“I thought I had a good performance," he started. “Obviously our work in pre-season has paid off, we’ve put a lot of work in with and without to ball to get fit and I think especially in the first half it showed.

“I thought we were quite dominant and then second half, all teams are going to have a spell in the game and the fact that we could hold on for the win and keep them at bay for the remainder of the game was pretty impressive."

Relating to his performance on Saturday and his game plan for the season, the 25-year-old revealed: “As a striker you always want to have an element of hold-up play, especially in these kinds of leagues. 

“It’s going to be physical so that’s always going to come into play. It's something we’ve worked on and something I've tried to improve on myself throughout pre-season and hopefully as the games go on, I can get better at that."

When asked about the importance of the home crowd getting behind the players, the Bury-born frontman replied: “One thing I did want to touch on was the importance of the fans this season.

“I thought they were great on Saturday and that’s all we ask for as a team. We’re putting work in to get ourselves out of this league and get promotion, and they're going to be a massive part of that so we need them every game, home and away. I thought today was a great example of what we need."

Elaborating on his pre-season preparation, Nuttall stated: “I feel like I've had a great pre-season, great training, great build-up to the first game, and not just me but the whole team. The manager and the coaching staff have worked extra hard and I think it showed today.

“You always look to start the season with a win. If you start with a loss it dampens the whole season, and then your season doesn’t really start until the week after or until you get that first win, so to start with a win is a massive boost to us, we’re confident and we’re working hard to get out of this league, so to start with a win is an added bonus."

Finally, Nuttall concluded by talking about his goals for this season. He said: “I’ve got goals and aims I would like to achieve by Christmas. I’ll keep them to myself, but I have set myself goals and I'll be doing my best to achieve them. Again, the team getting out this league is the biggest goal we have so far."

See much more from Joe Nuttall and Keith Hill on Iron Player.