Manager Paul Jewell believes Saturday’s opening day 3-0 victory at Bristol City will have given his squad a major confidence boost but says his players weren’t getting carried away in the dressing room afterwards. The Blues boss has said he needs to instil a winning mentality in the squad after a number of underachieving seasons.
Speaking after Saturday's game, Jewell said: "There’s nothing like winning matches to get that mentality. I can talk all I like, we can say all the right things, we can have all the psychologists you want, but winning matches is the best remedy for it.
"We’ve only won one match and if you go in the dressing room here, there’s no whooping and hollering from the players. They know that we can always improve and I want us to improve.
"We’re a new team, we had six or seven new faces today. It’s going to take time, so I don’t want people getting carried away and thinking we’re going to run away with the league. It’s not going to be like that. It’s a very a difficult league, but we’re delighted with the start, but not satisfied.”
Despite the Blues’ three-goal margin of victory, Jewell was still a livewire on the touchline, but says that that was nothing compared to some games, even if he thought he might have done himself an injury: "That wasn’t agitated, although I think I’ve pulled my hamstring!
"You want a clean sheet and there are no easy places to go in the Championship. There will be results up and down the country all year which will surprise people, but that shouldn’t be a surprise because everyone is capable of beating everyone else.
"Today was our day, but the home game against Hull next week will be totally different. Every game is difficult. Bristol City are a good team but today was our day.”
Saturday’s star man was two-goal striker Michael Chopra, who the Blues boss believes gives the side something it didn’t have prior to his £1.5 million arrival from Cardiff: "What we’ve lacked since January when I came here is that ball over the top where you can get a striker on to it quickly. They’ve got [a striker like that] in Maynard, he’s a constant threat to the back four.
"Although it was a terrific ball by Mark Kennedy, what Chopra does is make decent balls out of balls that maybe last year would have been defended comfortably.”