Port Vale manager Rob Page wants his players to focus on gaining match fitness in their upcoming pre-season friendlies.

The Valiants begin 2015/16 against local non-league outfit Newcastle Town on Saturday, kick-off 2.30pm, at Aspire Stadium.

Page’s side will then take on Alsager Town and Kidsgrove Athletic in quick succession while a match against La Liga outfit Getafe CF on 25th July was confirmed earlier this week.

That adds to the previously arranged clashes with League Two Notts County, Championship Bolton Wanderers and Conference Premier Altrincham. 

Speaking to Valiant PlayerHD, Page insisted it is important his squad uses the friendlies to get up to speed in a real-game environment.

“We want to be good at everything we do, we want to win everything we put ourselves into but ultimately these first couple of games are about fitness,” he said.

“It’s going to be building the lads up to playing the amount of minutes they’re going to play, maybe a half each building up to an hour then getting 90 minutes under their belts.

“We don’t want anything above that because we’d risk injury at the minute and we can’t afford to do that so it’s building them up to 90 minutes.

“But that replicates the match fitness and that’s what’s better than any training you can do.”

Click on the icon below to watch the full interview with Rob Page on Valiant PlayerHD.