The Cod Army will travel to Germany for a couple of games
Graham Alexander is excited about the Club’s pre-season friendlies and believes every fixture will offer his side a different test.Town’s pre-season programme consists of games against AFC Fylde, Borrusia Dortmund ‘B’, Alemannia Aachen, Kilmarnock, Burnley and Getafe.
The manager is pleased with the variety of teams that the Cod Army will face ahead of the season’s start on the 9th August.
He said: “Our first fixture of pre-season against AFC Fylde will be a competitive fixture for us, and then obviously we go to Germany to play a couple of games.
“The game against Borrusia Dortmund’s Under 23’s will be a difficult one in a different environment, but they’re a different type of opponent for us.
“We’re looking forward to that trip altogether and of course our second game out there against Alemannia Aachen.
“The game against Kilmarnock up in Scotland when we come back is another difficult one as Scottish teams are a week ahead of us in their preparation.
“I’ve played these sort of games in the past as a player and there’s always a bit of an edge on it when English clubs play Scottish clubs.
“After that then we return to Highbury in front of our own supporters for games against Burnley and Getafe.
“Burnley will certainly be a test for us as they’ve done great over the past couple of years even though they had the disappointment of getting relegated.
“Getafe are a top team who play in the top league in Spain so we know that they’re going to be a really good side.
“It will give us a different type of test as we’ll have to take into account how they do things, but that’s what we want as we want a varied pre-season.
“This pre-season programme will give us a chance to see how the team copes against different opposition.
“It’s important we get games where we’re competitive in. We don’t really want to play a top four Premier League team and it just be a defending session.
“We have to have an opponent where we can compete in well, and we feel we’ve got those.
“We’re probably the smaller team in most of those games but it’s something the players can relish as they will pit their wits against some top teams.
“It’s about preparing the players for the big kick-off and making sure they’re as fit as possible and know how we want to play.”