CWMBRAN'S Danny Gabbidon is raring to go ahead of the new campaign, but admits the heat is on to deliver after a sensational first season as a Premiership footballer.

The West Ham defender played 73 minutes for Wales against Bulgaria last night, having only featured for 45 minutes this pre-season for his club after undergoing a hernia operation.

However, he is hoping to be selected for West Ham's opening clash with Charlton on Saturday, though he appreciates the pressure is on for him this season.

Gabbidon was the supporters player of the season last term, but is keen to impress in his difficult second season.' He explained: "I had a good first season and was pleased with how I did and West Ham had a good year as well.

"But I know I can't rest on my laurels and I have to keep improving and will be looking to do even better this season, because the second season is always a lot tougher, I am really looking forward to it, I want to do a lot better.

"Obviously this season will be a lot tougher, last year I was a bit of an unknown quantity and it went really well. This season we have a lot more games because we are in Europe and it will definitely be tougher, we need to step our game up."

Gabbidon is confident he is in good enough shape to play, despite his injury hit pre-season.

He added: "The injury is fine, not too bad at all. I came off as a precaution last night, I have only had 45 minutes of football in pre-season so I didn't want to risk playing the full 90 minutes, I was quite happy with the amount I played (73 minutes).

"I needed to get the minutes under my belt, so this was a good game for me to get my fitness to a higher level, I was happy with that.

"It hasn't been the best preparation for me and I would like to have played more games and done pre-season but it was good to play and I will train for the rest of the week and wait to see if I am selected for Saturday."

Of the game, Gabbidon said: "I thought it went well and it was a decent game, I don't know how it stayed 0-0, we had some good chances and created good opportunities which bodes well, but we will hope to defend a bit better than we did.

"We feel we are in decent shape and are looking forward to the Czech game in a couple of weeks.