Nick Pope reveals when Eddie Howe told him he’d start for Newcastle United vs Nottingham Forest

The England international didn’t have a save to make and only had to make a few comfortable claims as Newcastle strolled to a 2-0 win against their newly-promoted opponents at St James’s Park.

Three points and a clean sheet at home to open the new campaign was the perfect start for Pope and his new teammates particularly when you consider how last season started.

“I think it was [the perfect debut],” Pope admitted. “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 because it took me, 10, 11 games to get a win last year and there were a few more here [at Newcastle] so it's nice to be one from one.”

Pope’s £10million arrival from Burnley in June sparked debate whether it would be him or long-term No. 1 Martin Dubravka who got the nod for the opening day of the season.

Ultimately, head coach Eddie Howe gave Pope the nod over Dubravka. The position is now his to lose.

But Howe kept his decision on who would start quiet until the day before the match.

“[On Friday] we went through the team and that was it,” Pope revealed. “I'm delighted to be given the opportunity to play for this football club and I couldn't have asked for any more from today.”

As a debutant, making a good first impression is important. But as a goalkeeper, chasing a performance can often backfire and lead to mistakes.

So Pope was keen to keep things simple and maintain a level head throughout.

“You gain that with experience and when you get older,” he told The Gazette. “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 today.”