Stags’ boss Adam Murray says he expects his players to begin to show their match sharpness as he looks to alter their training regime in the coming days and weeks.
Our first team were held to a 0-0 draw by Matlock Town last night and speaking post-match, Murray said his players went into the game ‘feeling very lethargic’ after completing triple sessions in training over the last three-and-a-half weeks.
“[It was] another good workout. It’s interesting to see the boys perform at the minute because we’ve put more physical work into them in the first three-and-a-half weeks to make sure we’ve got a good base because we don’t want the 'dip' [in form] we had midway through last season,” the gaffer said.
“We’re probably taking a little bit of a hit on our sharpness at the minute so we know that once we start coming down the work scale, that’ll come to the forefront.
“[It was] another good physical workout on a big pitch; it was good to see certain things on that because in our league we’ve got all sorts of shapes and sizes of the pitches.
“It was interesting to see the shape tonight on a bigger surface which gave us a few ideas going into the season of what will work and what won’t work so overall, I’m chuffed to bits. We just need to up the levels of anticipation and sharpness now, but that will be the last three weeks’ work.”
And after facing lower league sides Rainworth Miners Welfare, Clipstone, Carlton Town and Matlock so far in pre-season, Murray is now turning his attentions to the One Call Stadium double-header against Bolton Wanderers and Hull City, which he says will mark the start of an alteration to his side’s training regime.
“I think now we’re getting into the nitty-gritty of the games, aren’t we, so it’ll be about getting people’s game-time up a little bit because that’s where your match sharpness and your match fitness will come from.
“So probably the periods of training will lower, the intensity will go up, the sharpness levels will go up, the game-time will probably enlarge and that’s when hopefully, over the final three weeks [of pre-season], then things will start to click together and we’ll get that match tempo and match pace out of the squad.
“As a player, I’m well aware that we can do all the work day-to-day, we can work as hard as we want day-to-day but you get your real match sharpness playing games, hence why we put the other two games in and now it’s about getting through this week and then tapering down the workload but sharpening up the intensity and I think that’s when everything will start to click.”
Supporters can view Adam Murray's post-match interview on Stags PlayerHD.
