Jack All Smiles After First Week

By Tom Easterby

Jack Colback has just completed his first week of training with his new club and already feels at home on Tyneside.

The 24-year-old boyhood Newcastle United fan joined on a free from Sunderland in June and, with preparations for the new season already well underway at their Benton base, he says he is already settling in well to his new surroundings.

"There's been a lot of ball work among doing the running as well," explained the energetic midfielder.

"It's been good, it's nice to be back. The lads have been great and very welcoming."

The Magpies travel to Oldham Athletic on Tuesday night to kick-off their hectic pre-season schedule and the game at Boundary Park could see the Killingworth-born schemer pull on a Newcastle shirt for the first time.

Colback insists the friendlies act as a timely supplement to the work done on the training ground, and that performance and fitness are of paramount importance with the big-kick off just over a month away.

"It's good to have a lot of games to play - that's where you're going to get your fitness and your match sharpness and start getting a feel for the game again, which you maybe lose a touch from being off for so long," he said.

"But it's good that we've got the weeks broken up with a lot of games.

"Obviously every game you play, if it's a friendly or not, you want to win and have a positive result, but we also need to show that we're gelling as a team and improving as a team.

"I think the manager and the staff will probably first and foremost look at performance and fitness, and if we're doing what they're asking of us then the results will come."

Alan Pardew's men will spend a fair chunk of pre-season overseas, with trips to both Germany, for the Schalke 04 tournament, and New Zealand, where they will face Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix.

Colback believes a change of scenery, as well as the calibre of opposition, will help the team as they get ready for the visit of champions Manchester City on the opening weekend of the new season.

"It's quite common now - I think the majority of teams go away and get away from the area, but it'll be a new experience for me," he revealed.

"I've been to Hong Kong and places like that, so I've travelled far but not quite as far as New Zealand.

"It'll be an experience to go out there, we've got two games that'll be a good test, and then the Germany tournament will be a good one as well, against really good opposition (Malaga and Schalke 04). It gives you a chance to test yourself."

Season tickets for Newcastle United's 2014/15 campaign are now on sale. To secure your seat at St. James' Park, click here.