AT last the day had arrived – our first match back in the Championship.

For the first time in a long while, we have been looking forward to the kick off of the new season.

The excitement was there as we deliberated our prospects over a couple of pints of Doombar.

We were amazed at the number of players we have managed to sign on for the cause and there’s hope we can carry forward the spirit built up last season.

The general view is that we will be happy to stay up and hopefully not make it too nervous at the end of the season.

Leeds United at home would be a good test to start with.

Leeds certainly gave us a taste of what we can expect, especially in the first half – no time on the ball and clinical finishing.

They put away three out of three chances. We looked off the pace and a bit one dimensional, playing the long ball up to Gary Madine, who in fairness was our man of the match.

Kevin Davies must have been watching from the TV commentary box in admiration of this target-man display.

By half time we were distinctly worried how things will pan out this season.

In the second half we rolled our sleeves up and upped the pace.

We give it a go and were rewarded when the Leeds defence wanted to have Madine’s shirt before the final whistle.

In the end, we fell just short but gave ourselves some hope for the season.

This team will get better as the new players bed in.

Reece Burke looked comfortable when he replaced David Wheater and Adam Armstrong showed some badly needed pace when he came on.

The injuries are a little bit worrying with our restricted squad numbers – Filipe Morais, Sammy Ameobi and Darren Pratley out before a ball had been kicked in anger and it doesn’t look good for Josh Vela after he was carried off at the end.

One game does not make a season either way.

We thought our defence would be our strength and our attack our weakness, but we let three goals in and both strikers have got off the mark. Football is a funny game.

Let’s see how we settle down in this division over the first dozen games and make sure we get some points on the board.