SO FINALLY, after spending weeks in nervous anticipation, the wait is finally over.

No, not the release of the new home shirt (although it's great that we can finally get our hands on it now we're back from our holidays and can't show it off) but the start of the new season.

I'm not sure myself but my wife is convinced these summer breaks get shorter and shorter every year.

Still, I've assured her I will make the transition from Saturday shopping to Saturday at the Rovers with consummate ease.

Anyway, on to more important matters, how are we going to fare in the coming nine months.

After the end of last season I was expecting quite a lot of change in the playing staff. There seemed to be a lot of players heading for the exit door following on from last year's poor season and, as a result, there must be players to replace them.

How wrong I was. Up to press we've lost three and brought in two. Now, I have no problem with the players brought in but Stevie Wonder could see that we needed more firepower but is there not a danger that, with the Craig Bellamy signing in particular, we're expecting our goalscoring problems to just disappear?

There's no doubt that his pace and all round game will trouble the best of defences but even though our strikers were average at best last year they cannot be solely responsible for our poor goals tally.

There has to be collective blame and it has to be said that we hardly created a hatful of chances for the strikers to miss. This is an area that I still feel has not been tackled and even with a fit Robbie Savage in there the midfield creativity (the veteran Tugay apart) looks seriously lacking.

The one hope that I have is that Morten Gamst Pedersen keeps his form and that we finally see the real Brett Emerton, making the wait worthwhile.

Having said all of this I've been quietly encouraged by the way pre-season has gone.

We're unbeaten, having played decent quality opposition. Now I know the well-worn phrase is that these results don't matter and that it's all about fitness but I don't buy that. Winning is a habit, and a good one at that, and if we can take that into the first few matches of the season it'll go a long way towards guaranteeing safety.

The manager has given me no reason whatsoever to doubt him so far. If he can turn us into a side who play attractive, winning football not only will he cement our place in the top league, he may even win back the apathetic fans ... but maybe that's asking a little too much.