PNE captain Ben Whiteman

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Transcript

00:00As you take your friendlies off then, do you kind of want the real thing to come around?

00:04Yeah, you do. Like I mentioned before, I think you do sort of look at pre-season, you try and stay injury-free.

00:10It's tough and demanding, but it's the stuff that you've got to do.

00:14But yeah, you do sort of look forward to the first game of the season. That's a bit exciting.

00:18Not to dramatise the season, but does it feel like quite a big one, obviously two and a half years under Ryan Lowe,

00:24and now trying to take that next step, isn't it?

00:27I think that's been sort of the focus for pressing in the Championship. I think we've been so close.

00:33It's going to sound like there are some frustrations, but it's not really like a try.

00:39I think when we get to the business end of the season, we need to stamp out our authority a bit more and try and get to the play-off places.

00:46Yeah, you don't want to lose what's got you 63 points two years in a row, do you?

00:50But what changes have you seen this summer, or new things have been brought in to try?

00:55I think we've mentioned obviously the way that we've ended the season, the past two seasons, I think.

01:01Me and Peter have spoken about that, and obviously the management staff.

01:06Now we can sort of help really and try and find solutions for that.

01:11Because like you say, I think we get to a certain point and then the season sort of fizzles itself out,

01:16which obviously then brings the backlash of the summer.

01:21We need to find a way, as a group, of staying and maintaining that form into the last four or five games of the season,

01:28and setting the point of the summer.

01:30Are there more meetings and stuff happening? You've mentioned speaking to Peter.

01:34Is there a leadership group as well? Is it all communication with everybody?

01:38I think that's it. I think it's being open and honest about where we are, obviously, as a football club,

01:42and what the expectations are. I think, as you've alluded to, I don't think we're finished.

01:49Well at all in the past two seasons. If we're being honest, we gave ourselves a great chance through the season.

01:54The last four or five games haven't been good enough, and you can understand the frustration from the supporters as well.

02:02It's about meetings and how we can rectify that.

02:06Like I said, the most important thing is that the football club are the fans, and we need to make sure we send them all up.