Mansfield Town

With just 40 days to go until our season-opener at Scunthorpe United, our players were put through their paces during a tough morning session at the Berry Hill training complex.

Manager Paul Cox has previously stated that he intends to ‘raise the bar’ with his squad this pre-season and a trip to Holme Pierrepont for a 10k run has already been finalised.

“In terms of first days of pre-season training, this was excellent,” said our boss, who was speaking at his weekly press conference.

“Our fitness levels were good and I’m absolutely over the moon. I can’t speak highly enough of both the group who were here last season and the new lads.

“I’ve said previously that if we’re going to be successful this year, we’ve got to raise the bar and work harder. It’s been a long day and everyone is getting on well.”

Cox continued: “On Saturday, we’re going to Holme Pierrepont and that’s going to be the fun part of the week. It’s about team work, team ethic and it’s going to be competitive.

“It won’t just be running, it’ll be swimming and the lads will be up to their knees in mud at some point. It should be a good bonding experience.

“The lads will be split into two groups and what I want to see is how they look out for each other when they’re up against it and in tough conditions.”

Our boss concluded: “The balls won’t be out until next week when we go to Malta, where we’ll be training in the morning and the afternoon too.”