Swindon Town Boss Phil Brown has given his verdict on his team's start to pre-season this summer.
The Reds were back at Beversbrook in Calne today following two days at Solent University for testing, and there was plenty of ball work carried out in addition to a fair amount of running.
And Brown admitted that he has been pleased with what he's seen so far over the first three days as he gets his squad ready and primed for action for the 2018/19 campaign.
"First and foremost I would like to publicly thank Chris Neville who worked at the football club and his connection with Swindon Town actually got us top class facilities," he told swindontownfc.co.uk.
"Solent University was second to none in terms of its Sports Science Department, and they are actually extending it and going through that process.
"It is always nice to have that relationship with a local University so we can maybe have the use of interns over the course of the season to help the Sports Science Department and the club.
"The results are already back in and there were some very interesting results. Some of the training sessions today were based on those results where one or two of the lads have to trim down on their body fats.
"As a club and as a one we all do the same work and there were one or two groans about that but that is life and that is the hard part of pre-season.
"We went to Southampton Football Club on Tuesday and I have a very good connection with Les Reed, Martin Hunter and with Radhi Jaidi the U23s Coach.
"We used pitch eight or nine but the standard of the surface was first-class. We had lunch then we came back.
"This is my 40th pre-season and I've witnessed a lot of change over the course of those 40 pre-seasons.
"We started in earnest today back at Calne and the surface is in pretty good condition, I would like to thank the groundstaff there who have been working all summer to get a certain area ready for us, which they did do.
"The players really enjoyed being back at Calne and I like to keep pre-season interesting, it is a motivation for the players.
"It is not just being at Calne for six weeks or being at the same training venue, we will be going up to St George's Park to play Benfica and we will be going abroad for five or six days of warm weather training.
"Being at different venues over the next six weeks is a motivation tool."
And Brown was pleased with the quality of work he saw on display during the various drills put on this morning at Calne.
"Whether you are a media person, footballer, physio or whatever, you just want to see that level of quality and that level of commitment in training, which we did do," he added.
"It has spiced up to a certain extent by one or two trialists coming in, you get one or two players who are out to impress and because of that you get our players trying to impress them.
"Again, it is a motivation tool for the players with one or two quality trialists coming in and they see the club is heading in the right direction in terms of where we want to be on the field of play, then they step up to the plate as well.
"It is all part and parcel of management at this stage of the season."
