Notts County forward Macaulay Langstaff has insisted he cannot wait for the new campaign to begin, after hitting a seven-minute hat-trick in the latter of two friendly games against Cambridge United on Saturday.
Langstaff, who impressively found the net 30 times in 49 appearances for National League North champions Gateshead last season, had missed large parts of County's pre-season camp due to illness. Now back and hungrier than ever, the former York City man is happy in finding the net before his side's domestic curtain raiser next month.
"I'm delighted," began Langstaff as he spoke to County's official club media. "It's always nice as a forward to score goals and I think early on in pre-season it's great to get off the mark. I did that against Basford and I'm very to score happy today. It's a great feeling.
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"I'm full of confidence and belief coming off the back of last season and as I have spoken about it's important to get off the mark nice and early, as it removes that burden from you. To get a few more goals today it shows I'm full of confidence and belief. It's something I want to carry on throughout the whole of pre-season and into the season."
Losing 2-0 to Cambridge during the first of two 70 minute games, County hit back during the second game, winning 3-2 thanks to Langstaff's efforts. Having now spent some time with Luke Williams on the training pitch, the former Blyth Spartans forward is relishing his new role.
"I've worked quite a lot with the gaffer and he's been brilliant with me so far in the first couple of weeks, I've had to adapt my game a little bit. My style of play was a little bit different at Gateshead, it was more sort of running the channels and trying to get down the sides. Here the gaffer wants me to be just be in between the goalposts and let all the other lads do the running, that's what I did today.
"Today, I sort of didn't touch the ball as much as I'd like and as much as I did last season, but I'll take that every game if it means scoring three goals. That first half wasn't as we would like it to be as we think we can compete with League One/Two teams. We showed them too much respect at times."
Providing further insight into his opening weeks in Nottinghamshire too, Langstaff is firmly of the opinion that this season is one that can be as fruitful as his last. County will be looking to bounce back given last season's play-off heartache.
"The first week or two was a little bit of a nightmare. I was really ill and I hate those situations, I hate missing games. I may have missed out on fitness a little bit and I've now worked really hard, I'm loving being here now I've moved to Nottingham and really enjoyed the city and the group of lads. We have a really good group of lads in there. It's been brilliant."
Williams' side next face-off against Boston United on Wednesday night, hoping to continue what has been a strong pre-season campaign so far. Final tests against Nottingham Forest and York City follow soon after, before the side's curtain raiser against Maidenhead United on August 6.
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