I'M really looking forward to meeting Owen Coyle.

I like what the manager has had to say so far and he's been like a breath of fresh air so far.

The last couple of months under Steve Cotterill were hard for all concerned. I was a big fan of Steve's, and in the long run he will prove that he's a good manager, but the team wasn't playing well under him and it was probably time for a change.

The board have picked Owen, and it will be interesting to see how his players approach his first game in charge this afternoon.

If I'm honest, I wouldn't know him if I walked past him in the street, but the fact that Alex McLeish gave him a reference just shows how highly he's thought of.

When he was unveiled on Thursday, he said he would like to play with two wingers - and that was music to my ears.

In my time at Burnley, we had the likes of Willie Morgan, John Connelly, Ralph Coates and Gordon Harris providing the crosses from the wings and strikers like me would thrive on the service they provided.

And I would love to see us get back to that. There's no better sight than seeing a winger beating a defender.

But that's for the future. Now the loan deadline has closed he's got to work with the squad he has available.

And he needs to get them playing to their full capacity as soon as possible because we've got a heck of a month coming up.

With Stoke today and the likes of Watford and Charlton in the next week or so, the players need to be really fired up and show what they can do.

This is a new start for everyone. We've got a new manager, plans for a new ground and, hopefully, a new belief that we can get into the play-offs.