Manager Micky Mellon looked ahead to making the most of Town’s pre-season trip to Austria and reflected on the impressive fitness levels his players have maintained so far.
By Liz OwenManager Micky Mellon looked ahead to making the most of Town’s pre-season trip to Austria and reflected on the impressive fitness levels his players have maintained so far.
“It’s a fantastic environment with great facilities, so we’re getting some real good work under our belt,” he said. “The lads are probably, to be fair, much further on fitness-wise than I expected them to be, so that’s very pleasing. They’ve been very professional during the summer; they’re hitting their fitness test marks already this pre-season, so I’m delighted.”
Initial pre-season training tends to focus around fitness work, but Mellon has already reintroduced the ball amongst his players as he aims to make full use of the Austrian resources. “We try and keep it to specifics, but at the end of the day we want to get good on the football,” he said, “so we’ll try and make it as interesting as possible and try and involve the football as much as we can – the players enjoy that as well. It would be criminal really not to use these football pitches because they are fantastic.”
After a night’s stay near Salzburg, the squad travelled to Obertraun Tuesday afternoon, the same place that Town visited two years ago. “We’re very familiar with it, we know what to expect and we will get down there again,” said Mellon. “It has fantastic facilities and a great environment for the players to get fitter. Things are looking very well at the minute”
Mellon was also full of praise for the new additions to the Town squad: “They’re very professional, very fit. Like I expected, they’ve lifted the whole professionalism of the whole group to a new level. They’ve already made a massive impact among the lads and we’re all enjoying getting fit.”
The manager maintains, however, that he is not yet thinking about who will be amongst the starting line-up as the club’s first pre-season game – against Blackburn Rovers on July 21st – approaches. “It’s still very, very early, there’s still a long way to go before we start picking teams,” he said. “Certainly I’m very impressed with the fitness levels of the whole group, delighted they’ve come back in such good shape. They look like they’ve got the bit between their teeth and look like they want to do what I expect them to do and go and be very competitive in League 2.”
