After enjoying a relaxing summer break, Ritchie Humphreys is now preparing to get back to training ahead of the 2010/11 campaign.

The end of last season was a tense time for all and the close season gave the players a chance to re-group,

"Obviously after that final day was more of a relief that we'd stayed in the division and then it was time to go away and have a mental break and a physical break and think about where we can improve as players, and what we can do as a team to improve.

"It's mainly a chance to get away with family or friends, everyone has done different things.

"There's not been much sunbathing for me this year, I've been too busy running round after the little one as she is crawling now.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my break away though."

Now the focus turns to the new campaign and the Carling Cup draw last week proved a popular one with Humphreys,

"With the Cup draw, Sheffield United are the club I supported as a boy and I've only ever played against them once before so I am looking forward to that on.

"We have quite a few South Yorkshire boys in the squad, Neil Austin, Chris Turner, Steve Haslam, Scott Flinders and myself and the other Yorkshire boys Andy Monkhouse and Sam Collins - and a lot of us have played against each other and players who are playing for Sheffield United when we were younger so it will be interesting to play against those players again.

"Then with the fixtures, everyone wants to know where we are on the first and last days of the season.

"We're starting at Rochdale and we've had some great ties with them over the years and I'm sure this will be another one.

"There are some good clubs in this league but we know that we can compete and we definitely have to improve on our league position.

"Our league position for the last two seasons has been disappointing.

"When we have played against some of the top teams, we have not got the results despite good performances and we have to improve and start picking up the points as well from these games to push us on."

And while Humphreys is hoping to see a few new faces in the squad for the new season, he admits the players pay little attention to the rumour mill,

"It is sort of pointless listening to rumours - until the lads have actually signed we don't tend to listen to anything.

"We brought a lot in last year but hopefully we will add a few more faces this year to what we have already got."