Second year scholar Jerome Jolly was pleased by the youth team’s comprehensive win over Morecambe in their pre-season opener, but says there is also more to come from the side.
Jolly played a part in three of five second half goals as the Lilywhites recorded a fine 6-1 victory, the 17-year-old scoring direct from a free-kick as well as registering two assists, that coming after a four-day training camp in North Wales earlier in the week.
The versatile midfielder, who played as part of the second half side after a completely different XI started the first, agreed it was encouraging to start pre-season in such a fashion but said he and his teammates have plenty more work to do before the league campaign begins.
“It’s a good start to this year because I didn’t manage to score last year, so it’s a good start to the season,” Jolly told PNE.com.
“I feel a bit stiff from Wales because we’ve only recently got back. But it’s just about getting minutes under your belt for this game and getting match fit, because you can never get match fit through training because there’s all different kinds of movements in games.
“It’s all about doing those movements and pushing yourself in pre-season so you’re ready to start to the new season. We’ve had one football session, so this was most of the lads’ real high intensity game to play in. It was good to get on the field and play.
“Pre-season is different to the normal season; the intensity will increase. It’s all about getting your touch right and getting yourself prepared.”
Despite making two assists in the game, one direct from a corner for Charlie Lyons to head home and second neat pass in behind for Louis Potts to finish, Jolly pinpointed that chance creation aspect as an area he hopes to further improve upon.
“I didn’t get many assists last year either and I still feel I need to work on my crossing because I could’ve got more assists in that games with the opportunities we had, but my final ball was lacking.
“There’s a difference between dead ball crossing and crossing on the move. When you’re crossing from a corner, you’re not under any pressure from the opposition, so you have time to know where you’re going to put it, but I need to work on crossing when I’m running with the ball and knowing which areas to put it in.
“This is obviously the first game back and there’s more training to do, so I can improve my technique [during that time].
“I feel I could’ve kept going for a bit longer but playing for 90 minutes would’ve been tough coming off the back of Wales, it was a tough programme. There’s more games to come and hopefully I can player for longer in those games.”