You did it with a group of players that Nick had before…
There were a few positional changes. Thommo for me is a good player who had a lot of good attributes from the physical and the technical side and I felt he could play the game a little bit better with the game in front of him rather than receiving the ball with his back to goal which is what he was doing in midfield. He made some really good runs in midfield, and was a quick player. For me, I felt we needed a fullback, left back and as far as midfielders were concerned we had the likes of Stuey in there who could dictate play and play us out of there, and we had Nicky Carle in there who could create as far as the final third is concerned. We needed another person who would really work and put his foot in and we had Paul Kohler came in and did a good job of it. He was a major part of our season.

It was somewhat a case of getting the guys to play to their strengths…
Very much so. We played probably two systems this year. We played a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-2-1-3 depending on how you want to look at it and we played a 4-4-2 with a diamond sort of shape in the middle of the park so each way I felt was good. The one thing I don’t mind tampering with is the midfield and the strike force, but as far as the defence went I think you’ll find we always played with a four. I’m not a big fan of the three unless we’re really chasing the game and we’re looking to go route one and we’re just trying to pick up the second ball ala Wimbledon but I just think the four covers you a lot better at the back. Especially when you’re really promoting the fullbacks to get forward and in that respect you’ll have three at the back so you’re nice and strong; but I think that the shape that we adopted really suited the team and we’ll take that into next year with so much more understanding of what we’ve been doing this year. We can really build on it this year.

You’ve mentioned your boy’s fitness before. Is that something that you worked on when you took over?
We had a fairly solid pre-season but sometimes the boys don’t realise how much fitness work they’ve had when we’re playing possession games and what have you. I’m not one to run them a great deal without the ball. A lot of work can be done with the ball but pre-season is a balance you have to have. Once you get into the season proper you have to concentrate a little bit more on speed and these sorts of things and other training techniques that you have to explore. A lot of your fitness work comes from possession and small-sided games.

How much did the crowd become a factor?
It did a lot. It was good to see that no matter what you do in life you put hard work in and you get re-paid no matter which way you look at it. You get recognition, monetary or for us in this situation, we got crowds. We weren't always getting results but we were playing decent football along the way. Coupled with the fact that we were very active in school promotional visits, shopping centre visits and the like you’re quite fortunate to be in a torn situation. Newcastle is a city but it is more of a town situation because everything is quite accessible. I mean you’re 15 minutes from anything and for the players it was great. They got to see a lot of people and we connected really well with the public. When we had the send-off here at the Civic Centre and again when we came home you actually have people who come and support and who we now actually know their names. So it’s really quite personal and I don’t know if that could actually happen in a larger city, if you like.