Reds defender Martin Cranie met with the media ahead of Saturday’s season opener against Wigan Athletic at Oakwell.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Cranie. “We’ve had a good pre-season. All the lads are fit, a few niggles, but everyone is looking forward to it and getting on now.
“We got a massive boost at the end of last season. We know we can compete with the big teams.
“The three teams that came down last season struggled, so you never know how they’re going to do.
“We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves, do what we’re strongest at.
“I’m glad I’ve got the pre-seasons and games in this year, so I can get straight into it for the first game on Saturday. I’ve had a good pre-season, no injuries and I haven’t missed a training session.
“It’s good for the fans that the club is moving in the right direction. As players we just focus on the training side of things and the games.
“There’s no point us going into the season thinking we’ll just scrape relegation again this year. We’ve got to build on what we did last year with the players we’ve got, we’ve got a good foundation now in the team pushing on.
“Sometimes you have a good season and a lot of the players can move away to different teams. But we’ve kept nearly everyone from last season. We’re only going to benefit from that. We just need to pick up from last season.”
