Pope was ‘delighted’ with start

NICK Pope has revealed Eddie Howe waited until the eve of the game against Nottingham Forest to deliver the news he would be starting in the encounter with the Premier League new boys.

Fans have been debating who should start between the posts throughout the pre-season programme but England international Pope was given the nod over popular stopper Martin Dubravka.

Pope kept a clean sheet on his debut for Newcastle but did not face a single shot on target.

When asked when Howe delivered the news, Pope said: “On Friday we went through the team and that was it.

“I was delighted to be given the opportunity to play for this football club and I could not have asked for any more from my debut.”

Newcastle threw everything at Forest in the first half before grabbing the lead just before the hour mark through Fabian Schar.

Pope spoke of the need for patience.

He added: “You gain that with experience and when you get olde, you know that as a goalkeeper you do have to wait for the game to come to you a lot of the time and chasing it if you like is something which can be detrimental to the team.

“It was important for me to keep that focus and deliver what the team needed.”

Pope was also delighted with his clean sheet – even if it was one of his easiest days as a Premier League goalkeeper.

He said: “I think it was the perfect debut. It is what you look for as a goalkeeper, what you look for as a team.

“We want to win as many games as we can and it was lovely to get off to the start that we did and have the performance to go with it as well.

“We had a good laugh about the win too because it took me

10, 11 games to get a victory last year with Burnley and there were a few more here at

Newcastle so it is nice to be one from one.”