Midfielder says pre-season is the hardest he has experienced
Midfielder Chris Lines has had his first real taste of a pre-season with boss Micky Adams and he can hardly believe how tough it has been.
when the real thing kicks in.thBut the former Sheffield Wednesday man knows he and his team mates will all benefit from the gaffer’s infamous training regime come August 9
Speaking after the match at Norton last night he said: “It’s been tough. I’m not going to lie, it has been easily the hardest few weeks I have had in football – ever!
“So I think tonight the lads looked a bit tired maybe. Obviously we have played three games in four days and we have been training in between, so it is going to get to us eventually.
“But Gaffer is relentless, he’s not having none of it so we’ll just carry on running and playing.”
While may people will think it is all about pushing yourself physically and suffering from aching muscles, Lines says there is more to I than that.
He explained: “For me personally it is the hardest pre-season I have done, so you start feeling that after a while, but you just have to get through it. It is a test mentally as well as physically.
“The lads are as fit as ever. I have never been in a team that is this fit and that is credit to the boys.
“A lot of the lads have got used to the gaffer’s pre-seasons but this is my first one really, so I am breaking in slowly.
“But it’s good. Come the start of the season, my aim personally is just to be fresh and fit. Tonight I had a bit of a niggle in my shin but it was nothing serious, but there’s no point risking it in pre-season.
“It is tough playing three games in four days when you are training every day inbetween as well and there’s not a lot of rest.
“Every time you do get a rest you have got to make the most of it. The main aim is to be fresh on the opening day of the season.”