Huge sighs went up when the league fixtures were published with ours looking as though the Premier League were determined to give us the worst possible start.
However, the process remains random despite all the cynicism.
David Moyes, remains unfazed and instead recalls his first time at the club when again it looked as though we were into a really tough battle.
Instead, despite all sorts of distractions – with a crown invasion thrown in – we got safe and that is clearly encouraging him to think positively this time around.
The opening match against Newcastle is definitely winnable and hopefully will set us up for more victories despite every game being as tough as it gets o ver the first couple of months.
Moyes also points out the players’ response when they emerged from lockdown facing incredible relegation pressure and is clearly more than hopeful that such a mood will continue into the the new season.
The manager speaking at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/august/22-august/david-moyes-scotland-preparations-finding-consistency-and explained his feeling on the task in front of the squad and himself.
He said: “I think our players came back from lockdown with a better focus.
We all knew we were in a big relegation battle, as we were. We knew that, when we came back, we had some really difficult games at the start. Could we then win the pressure games when it got to it? We certainly did.
I thought we played well in those games and showed that we’re capable, but we want to become a side who are more consistent.
We’re not suddenly going to be able to jump right up to the top. My aims will be really high, but realistically, we have to go along slowly, get the job done well, and have a team which can keep building for the future.
I think the introduction of one or two of the players in January made a big difference, and now we’re needing everybody to step up. We’re going to try and lift those levels again.
I think we will approach our opening games in the same manner.
I’ve always said that you play every team twice in the season. When I came into the Club, I looked at January’s games and thought: “My goodness, this set of fixtures is really difficult.”
They proved to be that, they really did, but we also saw a group of fixtures later on which we thought might be a chance to pick up points – which we did. “
The fixture list is what it is, City followed by Liverpool will be interesting, and October in general, if we could get 3 – 4 points from those 4 fixtures.Leicester/Spuds/City/Liverpool we would probably be ahead of most of the league, this season could be yet another unpredictable one, Covid could affect all clubs and the fixture list, the best we can wish for is to be unaffected in our squad with covid and see what happens. I can’t wait though, especially to get back into the Stadium, might not be everyones cup of tea but I have missed it COYI !!!