Russell Martin gave us his reaction.

I had ...

I genuinely have no real feeling, [clears throat] uh, about it, 'cause it's not been, uh, brought across my path, and we've been concentrating on preparing the team in the best way we possibly can to be strong, to be tactically good, to be physically good, uh, over preseason.

So, um, again, I'm quite calm about it.

It's not my domain, so if you're gonna ask me about all of that, I haven't got a clue.

I can't answer it.

Um, but everyone's really calm.

Here's Russell Martin on what to expect this weekend from his side and what he expects from the Magpies too.

What was your assessment of the performance?

Yeah, I'm really happy to win, keep a clean sheet, score a set piece as well, something we've been working really hard on, and Andy King's taken on the offensive attacking set players, so I'm really pleased for him and for the group, and we spoke about the importance of them, they might help us unlock a lot this season, so yeah, the only disappointment is we don't sort of create a bit more, but I think it's a really good team that's organised so well out of possession, so big credit to Hoggy and Doigie and them guys, I think they're a really It was a really perfect test for us about what we might face a lot during the season.

So there's loads of good moments and there's loads to work on and loads to improve.

So I said to the guys in there, it's exciting.

And they have to, like I said yesterday in the press conference, they have to find some joy.

I think it's been quite tough in the last couple of years here.

So today is good.

And based on what you've seen today, is there any particular areas that you think maybe still need strengthening in the transfer market? There was a lot of talk from Matt Piper, our summariser today, about potentially that out-and-out number nine coming in.

And with the arrival of Wes Burns confirmed on Thursday, I asked the Foxes boss a little about that move and the transfer window more widely.

Experience and promotion from this level, lots of games at this level, um, [clears throat] character, uh, real professionalism.

So before anything that he brings on the pitch, he'll bring all of that, and then he'll bring real quality and, and a different dimension for us.

Um, brilliant in and out of possession.

Uh, it's a real, I think, a real coup for us.

The same in, same as, uh, Connor.

They both could have been in the Championship, but they've come here because of the, the excitement of what we can achieve and also the way that we're gonna play, and they think it suits them, and they want to be part of that.

I imagine there'll be a group of senior players or perhaps players from kind of different parts of the squad that will form something of a leadership group as well.

Mm.

Really aggressive without the ball.

We regained the ball so many times.

Um, and the lads were great.

They, they ran, they fought, they played some brilliant stuff, and the only thing missing was we should've scored, and we had a fair few chances and I think until about 70 minutes, we limited them to one shot on goal, so...

And they made 11 changes.

We didn't, 'cause we made a choice today to play two games, and, um, take as many of the players as far into the game as possibly could, and 90 minutes if possible, and so many of them got that today.

What, what will, what will he bring, and are you still hopeful that perhaps that striker might arrive before the game next weekend against Northampton?

How have you found those conversations initially and working with those guys now you are at the

club? Well, I enjoyed the conversation.

What I did enjoy early on in the process was how honest how honest they were about what's gone on, about the problems they've faced, about why they would be interested in me as a manager now to bring something back to the club that they believe will be successful for the football club and is what they want it to be and what they want it to stand for on the pitch and off the pitch.

about what's gone on, but now real honesty and openness and willingness to move forward because I can't judge anything that's been on before.

I've not been here.

You watch it from the outside and people make assumptions and all that stuff and I watched a lot of games last season.

But then I've been really open to being surprised when I've got here.

What is your footballing philosophy if you had to kind of break it down?

It felt like a physical game, but the players, it felt, really stood up to the test.

Yeah, I was really pleased.

I thought they stuck together.

They fought hard for each other.

They ran hard for each other.

Difficult pitch for both teams and a good opposition and gave us different problems to what we faced already in pre-season.

First half we had to work out on the job with some solutions for the players because they've not faced that level of aggression yet in the press.

What did you make to them?

How do you look on that from your perspective and were you pleased with what you

saw? Yeah, really pleased with a lot of stuff.

I think it's an improvement for Tuesday, which is all we can ask for.

And actually the message since Tuesday and what we learned today, they really took on to the pitch today so and more importantly all about the tactical stuff they've been great and hopefully you're starting to see how the team will look and wants to look but they're running really hard, reacting for each other, fighting for each other, running for each other.

I really liked us out of possession today, hunting the ball, really enjoyed that.

And then we had some brilliant moves with the ball and we scored a couple of really good goals and created a lot.

What were

That's the

How do you look on that from your perspective and were you pleased with what you saw? Yeah, really pleased

with a lot of stuff.

I think it's an improvement for Tuesday, which is all you can ask for.

And actually the message since Tuesday and what we learned they really took on to the pitch today so and more importantly all about the tactical stuff they've been great and hopefully you're starting to see how the team will look and wants to look but they're running really hard, reacting for each other, fighting for each other, running for each other.

I really liked us out of possession today, hunting the ball, really enjoyed that.

And then we had some brilliant moves with the ball and we scored a couple of really good goals and created a lot.

What

That's the

How have the first few weeks been?

Yeah, they've been brilliant.

It's been an absolute whirlwind.

It's been, uh, so busy, which is what you expect from preseason.

Um, long, long days.

But I've been so impressed with, like, uh- Just the openness from everyone at the club, all the staff, support staff have been really fantastic.

Um, learning everyone's names is, [laughs] has been a challenge, but I think we, we're there, or we're getting there very, very much, very close.

I just wondered what you've seen from him to make him captain and also whether you think he's gonna be at the club next season.

T'sais, t-t-- l'histoire est, est quand même très belle, mais juste ce, cette contraste de gros marché à petit marché, j'aurais voulu t'entendre.

Sure.

Euh, écoute, c'était-- c'est quand même, euh-- t'sais, tu passes des, des, des-- j'pense les deux, les deux plus grosses franchises des ligues majeures, t'sais, Dodgers, Yankees.

Puis là, tu t'en vas aux Pirates, une équipe que j'pense ça faisait 20 ans qu'y avait pas, euh, y avait pas fait les séries, mais c'est encore pire que ça.

J'pense que ça faisait 20 ans qu'y avait pas eu une saison en haut de, de, de 500.

[rire] T'sais, y avait toujours perdu plus de matchs qu'y avait gagné.

Puis, euh, fait que là, j'a-j'arrive au spring training.

Ah ouais, énorme.

Like, I don't know if you broke a thumb like Kirk did, but, yeah, how difficult would that be to come back? And obviously he's still rehabbing, and it's been a while, but he had surgery on that thumb too, right? Like his receiving hand, his thumb, like how difficult do you think that would be for him to return? I

mean, he's going to return when he's ready, right? And I think they've taken, you know, the time that they needed, and we'll see.

I think...

You know, in this day and age, you don't try to rush a guy back, and then you just – if you rush a guy back and he has a setback, it's worse, right? So you make sure that you're 100% before you come back.

And if I'm not mistaken, I feel like in his first at-bat, in his rehab, he hit a homer.

Yeah, he's fine.

Clearly he feels pretty good, right? Yeah.

But, like, if they were able to find a way to have the roster machinations to keep three guys and it makes sense from a roster perspective, how much would that impact the three catchers? Yeah.

Ah ouais, énorme.

T'sais, ils aiment le hockey, ils aiment le football, ils aiment le baseball.

Quand leur équipe performe, euhm, t'sais, le support, il est làPuis j'me rappelle cette journée-là, c'était-- ils appelaient ça le blackout.

Fait que tout le monde était en, en t-shirt ou en, t'sais en vêtements foncés, noirs.

Fait qu'en rentrant au stade, j'cours pour aller, euh, faire la préparation d'avant match avec le lanceur.

Puis là, t'sais, tu sens l'énergie là, le monde sont excités.

C'était, c'était incroyable.

[rire]

Hmm.

So when I came on board, there was already the genesis of what we wanted the space to look like.

We wanted something that would capture, you know, what everybody loved about the Court House.

Like, the, the old Court House, as beloved as it was, wasn't very welcoming for anybody who had any mobility issues or so on.

So in the new iteration, Leslie and Don came up with, with a great design that allowed accessibility and wheelchairs to come in and create sight lines.

And initially working through this, we were going to use seating similar to what we use in the studio.

And then I can't remember who it was, whether it was Tim or TC or somebody was like, "Well, what are we doing with all the old Royal George seats in the three years?" And we were like, "Well, I know where we can store them." And so we, as soon as the Royal George got decommissioned, we just started taking the, the seats out of the Royal George by the truckload and installing them in the Court House.

In terms of your role in making that happen, what were some of the challenges that you found along the way? Like, how easy or difficult was it to be able to put all of those wheels in motion?