“Team-wise, it was honestly one of the hardest seasons I have been a part of but also one of the best. Our season started so well but we were a team that was just promoted and we hadn’t really brought anyone else in. It is funny with the media because when we were in the Championship we were a Premier League team in the Championship. Then when we were in the Premier League, we were a Championship team in the Premier League. I don’t think many people had great expectations for us but we started well and then we went nine games without a win.
“Then pretty much everybody around the team, besides the team, was getting negative. But I think the good thing about this team is that we all stayed together, we all stayed positive. I think that’s the good thing about Rafa Benitez - he kept everyone positive. He said nobody was expecting us to stay up so we have nothing to lose. We know how good we are and we know how good we can be. And from 2018 we just cracked on and started beating some big teams, winning some important games and we ended up finishing in tenth position.”