After coming on as a sub at the weekend, Darren Carter was pleased to get a full ninety minutes under his belt as the big kick-off approaches and he felt PNE could have equalled the weekend's result after North End came back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Wrexham.

"They're a good side, they try to get the ball down, they have quick players who are good on the ball and the pitch is wide and big so when they spread the play like they did it's a tough workout and it took us a while to get to grips with it. I thought the second half we were alot better and we could have gone on and won the game."

Carts admitted that the majority of work done so far with the management has been with the purpose of improving the players' fitness but he expects that to change with only two and a half weeks to go until Bristol City arrive at Deepdale for the first game of the season.

"We haven't done anything on setplays or anything like that yet, he's left us to our own devices but I'm sure now leading up to the last few weeks we'll start nailing a few things down, in these games we've got to take responsibility and we have enough experienced players so when we nail things down on teamplay on the training pitch we'll be a lot more fluid on the pitch."

And after a stop-start 2008/09 campaign the former Birmingham City and WBA star told the official website he thinks boosting his fitness is going to be the way to get his name on the teamsheet on August 8th.

"I feel great, I did a lot of work personally over the summer, alot of the lads did as well, it's been relentless since we've come back and that's all good, we wouldn't have it any other way, there haven't been too many moans and groans, the lads realise it's for the benefit of everyone and I'm sure he's got a few more runs up his sleeve.

"The gaffer's said it's a clean slate for everyone, he's said all pre-season he'll gear the training to the strongest so you've got to make sure you're the strongest, that's what everyone's fighting for, it's what I'm fighting for, I want to be on the teamsheet come the eighth of August and hopefully I'm going about my job the right way and hopefully the gaffer's noticed."

Before Gary Johnson's men come to the town though there's the small matter of SPL outfit Hibernian and Premiership duo Wigan Athletic and Stoke City to overcome and the left-footed midfielder is looking forward to the challenge of the former Championship teams.

"It's been great the way we've worked up the pre-season games, we've stepped the level up each game and now the next two games will be tough against Premiership teams and Premiership quality players. It will be nice for us to set a benchmark going into the last week of pre-season and get two good results to give us confidence going into the first game."