Nick Pope has revealed that Eddie Howe waited until the eve of the game against Nottingham Forest to deliver the news that 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 got 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 he found out when Howe delivered the news, Pope said: "On Friday we went through the team and that was it. I'm delighted to be given the opportunity to play for this football club and I couldn't have asked for any more from my debut."
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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 said: "You gain that with experience and when you get older, 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 that can be detrimental to the team. It was important for me today 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 keeper. He said: "I think it was the perfect debut. It's 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's 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 win last year with Burnley and there were a few more here at Newcastle so it's nice to be one from one."
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