After signing for Vale on Friday, there was no celebrating for Steven Jennings who travelled down with the rest of the squad on Sunday to train at Navy camp HMS Raleigh for a week, and played the whole game against Plymouth Parkway on Monday night.
He said: “I knew I was playing for the full match beforehand, so I had to try and save a little bit for the second half because my hamstrings going a little tight. However, fitness wise I think I did alright for the 90minutes.
“It was a good run out, to be fair to them they wanted to pass the ball from out of the back which was a good test because you don’t really come up against that very often. It’s also shown that we need to switch on during throw-ins and free-kicks especially early doors, and we did that in the end which will help during the season.
“This pre-season is non-stop and that’s how the Gaffer likes it, he says to us that he wants us to play games tired so when the season does come you feel fresh. Don’t get me wrong, we moan at the time but at the back of our heads it’s probably the right thing.”
Jennings believes that players have to be a lot fitter now than a few years ago, and it means you never quite get a holiday.
He said: “I thought I was doing quite well with my fitness over the summer until I came here and some of the boys are super fit, I do a lot of work during the summer but some of the lads do even more. It’s something you’ve got to get used to, we no longer have 6 or 7 weeks on holiday, it’s more like 10 days to 2-weeks and then you’re back into it. I wasn’t too far behind the rest of the squad though thankfully.”
Exclusive footage of the squad at HMS Raleigh will be online tomorrow so keep checking the official site and Valiant Player to see the lads put through their paces.