Fleetwood Town’s new captain, Mark Roberts, feels ‘honoured’ to receive the armband but insists the whole squad must set the right example.
The 29-year-old, a summer signing from League One side Stevenage, was announced as skipper for the forthcoming season on Sky Sports News’ ‘92Live’ visit to Highbury.
And ahead of his first campaign with the Cod Army, Roberts is looking forward to the challenge of playing for his tenth club.
“It’s a massive honour to be named as club captain for the season,” said Roberts, “and something that I will give my very best shot.
“However, it’s up to all of us to set examples - not just myself as captain. Ultimately, I’ll be the one leading from the front, but the rest must follow suite.
“There’s three or four lads in the squad that have been captain at other clubs, and there are many good personalities and characters in the dressing room which should put us in good stead.”
The defender has been battling for a place in Graham Alexander’s starting line-up against Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday – the opening Sky Bet League Two fixture at Highbury.
Town’s last competitive win was in the home game against the Daggers in March, which Roberts feels is too long given the winning mentality within the camp.
“We’re well overdue a competitive win,” he said. “You can see on the training ground people want to win every day. I think that’s where winning on the Saturday comes from.
“That’s exactly why I chose to sign for the club. It’s all about winning matches now, and making sure we get in the mix at the top of the table.
“The lads are all chomping at the bit to get started. There have been some really good performances in the friendlies, but now it’s time for the real stuff.
“We want to get off to a good start and, playing at home in front of the fans, it would be great to get three points on the board.”
And after meeting both junior and senior members of the Cod Army at the open training session on Tuesday, Roberts is looking forward to the fans support throughout the season.
“The fans have turned up in their numbers throughout the pre-season games which has been a big positive – you don’t often see that with other clubs.
“It was great to see so many young faces attracted to the football club at the open day on Tuesday too, and hopefully they’ll get behind us and be the new generation of fans.”