PRE-SEASON seems to have flown by and we’re all raring to go for the League Two matches to get underway.

The manager has instilled discipline, organisation and a professional approach to everything we do and we can only benefit from his Premier League experience and methods to achieve success The training has been very tough as expected but structured in a way that we all know our jobs and the fitness levels expected.

And, while I know some people have been concerned about the size of our squad, I certainly feel we have enough about us to be able to go for promotion this year.

We certainly have the quality to be up there and I think we’ve shown that in the pre-season matches we’ve had against Real Madrid’s C team, Queens Park Rangers and West Ham United.

The manager has also been quoted as saying he’s looking to bring in more players and that will also increase our chances of success.

Obviously losing Ryan Cresswell was disappointing but collectively as a defensive unit we want to step up and try to make sure we can do still do a good job in absence.

I’m not sure who the manager will select in the back four but John White and Ben Coker have both come in during pre-season and have done well in the warm up matches they’ve played.

I also want to step up more this year and maintain a high level of performance throughout the whole season and I’m sure Luke Prosser feels the same way.

I’ve played with Pross quite a few times over the years and if that’s the partnership the manager goes with tomorrow then we will be determined to do well together.

We start off at home to Plymouth Argyle and that’s a very difficult first game.

People from the outside looking in will be expecting us to win but it certainly won’t be that simple.

Plymouth are a good, strong side and we’ve had some bad results against them in the last couple of seasons.

I’ve missed a few of those games and want to come back to help us put the record straight.

We need to get off to a good start in front of our own fans and that’s very much the plan for tomorrow.

ALL EYES ON MARC LAIRD

THERE’S never a dull moment when Marc Laird is about and that’s certainly been the case during pre-season.

One of the best moments came when he complained at the training ground that his potato salad had been served cold.

And he was equally as entertaining in Madrid.

We walked 10 minutes up the road to go to a couple of shops and the whole way there he was moaning and said he wasn’t sure about what we were doing.

In the end, he got himself so wound up about the situation that he walked back to the hotel on his own.

But the only surprise was that he actually managed to find it on his own!

BACK TO MADRID

WE were fortunate enough to head back to Madrid during pre-season and the facilities we get to use out there are first class.

We did really well in the match out there and because of the heat we played in it was a good test of our fitness and character.

The heat also led to some interesting hair-cuts in the camp.

Michael Timlin decided to shave his hair off with some help from Anthony Straker, while our young goalkeeper Luke Chambers ended up with an even shorter crop.

We all congregated in his room to help with the hair cut and Freddy Eastwood started to cut clumps out of his hair without Luke noticing.

Before he knew it he ended up looking like Fryer Tuck and it was only fair that we shaved it all off.

In truth, Luke probably looks better than he did before but it does look like he has a swimming cap on!

BASEBALL RULES CONFUSE DON COWAN

I UNDERSTAND that Don Cowan, a striker who has been on trial with us, was born in America, but he clearly doesn’t understand the rules of baseball.

We played it to warm us up before training this week and Don did well to make it round to fourth base.

But for some reason he thought there was another base after that and unnecessarily launched in to a crazy sprint which cracked everyone up and has certainly been mentioned a few times since.