Kyle Knoyle says United must meet the blueprint week in, week out, set by themselves in the winning performance against Carlisle United last Saturday.
After an impressive debut year with the Club in 2019/20, the right back has certainly returned firing on all cylinders and has showed early signs of further improvement during his opening performances of 2020/21.
Knoyle is happy with where his game is at currently, and rightly so having not only contributed towards three clean sheets out of the four games thus far, but also chipping in with two assists in the opening League win against the Cumbrians last weekend. And as a team, Knoyle says the U’s must continue to deliver the standard that has been set.
He said: “I was obviously very happy to get the assists. That’s a part of my game that I have been working on, and it was an area that I looked at last year as one that I felt I needed to improve on.
“It helps that when I’m looking up to cross the ball, the strikers are there and they’re ready to move into the right position to get on the end of them and finish it off. In fairness, all three goals against Carlisle were great finishes.
“But Carlisle was only the first game, we have a long season ahead of us, there’s another 45 League games, so we just need to be doing that every week. That’s my plan for the season, to hit the standards we have set for ourselves already early on.
“Most importantly, getting the clean sheet for the team. If we continue get more clean sheets this season, then we won’t go too far wrong.”
Playing behind Wes Hoolahan down United’s right-hand side is already an experience Knoyle is thriving in and the defender is quick to highlight how the former Norwich City maestro is bringing the best out of his him.
“It’s better for me playing alongside a player like that. I know that whenever he is on the ball, that I can make a variety of different runs and that he’ll find me every single time with the pass.
“Some people may watch the game or think that Wes won’t run as much, but I can honestly say he does as much running as anybody that has played in front of me before. He is always tracking, he never stops grafting and that sums up his character.
“It’s not a case of me having to help him out at 38, if anything he’s helping me out!”
Having breezed through the opening batch of matches in recent weeks without issue, Knoyle says he now feels full of confidence to tackle the season head on and feature as much as possible, with him able to comfortably put the memory of the corrective shoulder surgery from last season behind him.
“I’ve had a lot of time to work on fitness for the four or five months before the season, so it feels good to be playing. My plan is to play every minute that I can so I’m very happy with where I am at, at the minute.
“Having a full pre-season and playing a lot minutes in these first games, and coming out of those well, is definitely a confidence boost. I’m really looking to keep that up and the amount of time that I’m playing, throughout the season.”