The skipper reported back to training last week armed with a new contract and despite still being on a high from the victory in Cardiff, the Scotsman knows the hard work starts here.
He told Footymad: "I’m delighted to be back. I left at the end of the season on a high but with a little bit of uncertainty about my future but things have been smoothed over and sorted out so I am glad to be back and excited for next season.
"It’s like a whole new start to be honest. Last season it was a big move for me, a move to a massive club and the goal was promotion and obviously that worked out well but now we are in a whole new league and some of the fixtures next season are pretty mouth-watering to say the least. It’s like starting again completely from scratch but I’m just as excited now as what I was this time last year."
Bullen still reminisces about the Hartlepool game in South Wales and admits that it was the highlight of his career, but he has warned fans to put that great day behind them.
He said: "What happened in Cardiff will never be beaten in my career, it was absolutely unbelievable and the memories are outstanding. I keep watching the videos back and I knew there was a phenomenal crowd there and the stadium was fantastic but when you actually watch it back on video, it brings it all back; especially the sense of occasion and it hits you more.
"It was fantastic but as hard as it is, we have to put that at the back of our mind and concentrate on what will be a very difficult road ahead.
"Definitely expectation will not be high from the players and the management because we know how hard this season is going to be, we have set our target for survival and I think that is a realistic target. We know that we may go on some fantastic run at the end of the season and obviously targets may change but at the start of the season we have to be careful.
"We have come out of a league which is pretty difficult to get out of into a league which will be equally as difficult just to stay in. There’s Premiership-sized clubs in this league and it’s going to be hard. But if we play the way we can play, we will survive but it is going to be tough and our mental attitude is going have to be first rate, if that’s there, we’ll be ok."
More from Lee later in the week.
In other news from Hillsborough today, Chris Brunt has signed a one-year extension to his current deal - keeping him at Wednesday until 2007.