Reserve team manager David Unsworth is pleased of the levels of fitness showed by his players in their defeat to Oldham Athletic in the semi-final of the totesport.com League Cup.

This highly competitive rearranged fixture came early in the Club's pre-season schedule and the horrendous conditions on the day added to the size of the task for both sides.

However, Unsworth is happy with the levels of fitness that his side displayed in what was some of the lads' second game in two days.

"What about the weather conditions I would say first and foremost, they were unbelievable conditions for the lads," Unsworth jokingly told pne.com.

"Some of the lads played for the first team yesterday and it is a big ask to get them to come in and play a competitive game like that. There were tackles flying in everywhere and Oldham brought in a strong side.

"But for me this was just another fitness exercise because we can't be expecting the players to be firing on all cylinders at this stage of the season, especially after some of them played half a game for the first team last night.

"It was important that we used it as a fitness game but there was some decent stuff and some indecent stuff, if that's the right word. There was some frustration but the lads are finding their feet and having done a lot of pre-seasons in the past, sometimes it takes three or four games to find your feet and to find your touch.

"They did okay though, full credit to the senior lads as well who went about their job in a professional manor so credit to them."

A huge positive for the coaches was the 45 minutes played by Jamie Douglas who has been out since last October with a serious injury. Unsworth was full of praise for the first year professional who scored spectacularly in normal time and notched a penalty in the shootout. Unsworth said:

"It was lovely to see Jamie Douglas come on after a horrendous season last season through injury. He did his cruciate last year and it was great to see him come on and score the goal that he did.

"I saw him in my first game when I came to the Club; he scored a hat trick and was outstanding. I was thinking, 'wow, who is this,' and the next Saturday I think he was playing for Jamie [Hoyland] in the youth team and he did his cruciate.

"It has been a really long and tough road for Jamie and he has worked his socks off. Full credit to the medical department for getting him back and resurrecting his career because maybe ten or 15 years ago, he probably wouldn't have been able to have come back.

"He has though, he has worked all of the way through the summer and thoroughly deserved his one year pro contract that the Club gave him. He has worked hard and he deserved that goal today."

With the game carrying over from last season, the semi-final clash was forced upon both Clubs. Nevertheless, Unsworth is treating it as a useful exercise as North End edge closer to the start of the next campaign. Unsworth said:

"The situation gets upon ourselves and we just have to get on with it. We spoke to the Oldham manager before the game and we were both treating like a fitness game but at the end of the day you still want to win it. We were competitive and the boys were smashing, it was a good work out for them.

"We looked good in the last 20 minutes and I thought that we looked a lot fitter than Oldham did so we're happy with that. On the whole, it was a decent exercise and we are back in the morning for training."