Captain Canavan – veteran Niall happy to be at Boston United

After over four years at Barrow, where he was captain, the 35-year-old ended the season injured and was then released.

He got through a full 90 minutes in Saturday's 1-0 opening day 1-0 home defeat by Aldershot and said: “I am probably not quite 100 per cent at it at the minute, so it might take a bit longer for me.

“But the most important thing is being available out there to do as much as I can to help the boys in the team.

“It's always nice to start the season and I just know there is much more to come.

“I spoke to the manager quite early about the move.

“Obviously being injured at the back end of last season, I was kind of in the wilderness a little bit to the footballing world.

“But I have played against the gaffer's teams aplenty in the past and, as soon as I spoke to him, it was a project I was interested in.

“There is a really good infrastructure here and he has a really good reputation.

“Anyone who has played for him previously has had nothing but good things to say about him. So that was a really big draw.

“Regular football is the main thing for me.

“The club have been good enough to take on some of my rehab work after what was a bit of a messy end to my time at my previous club over the summer, so that has been an absolute godsend for me.”

On being captain, he said: “Having an armband on doesn't change the way I go about my business and what I am trying to do.

“So whoever the gaffer puts that on, we should have more than one out there.

“Everybody does their bit to lead and to help each other.”

Canavan is one of three veteran players at Boston this season and said: “There are some good old boys in there which I think is important in football as it's moving towards being a younger man's game.

“So to have those good role models and people to offer advice at different times is really important.

“Young boys can sometimes get a bit caught up in the here and now and it's important to also be aware of the bigger picture.

“We will make sure the younger boys have got their level heads on and understand what it is we're working towards.”

On the Aldershot defeat, he said: “There is frustration and we are disappointed, though I think we still had enough chances to have taken the win.

“It's not the result we all wanted to start the season with.

“But if there is a performance that's going to highlight things we need to improve on then you want it to be the first game.

"That gives you plenty of opportunity to put things right and get back on the good foot next week.

“There were elements of the performance we were not happy with.

“We're on our own patch and want to make this a fortress, so to start with a defeat is not the best for us.

“But we have plenty of time to work on it and that will start in earnest this week.

“We do have some positives from it we can look at, but on the whole we have a lot of stuff we want to work on and put right.”