Notts County manager Luke Williams feels better prepared for the pre-season fixture schedule entering his second season as manager and believes the squad will know already what is expected of them.
The Magpies have some tough fixtures lined up after their pre-season opener at Nuneaton Borough, with Stoke City and Nottingham Forest coming to Meadow Lane, before four away trips at AFC Telford United, Boston United, Alfreton Town and Shrewsbury Town.
After having a season, which ended in promotion, to implant his methods on most of the squad Williams is in a much more comfortable position as he looks to make the most of this pre-season period.
He said: “It’s just natural that you have a previous experience of something that you thought was correct or you have your own personal opinion on what you think is correct, but then it was my job to try and convince people of my methods.
“Throughout the season I tried to add more to people’s workloads so that we could each help each other to make a good process and have more people at the club with knowledge of what I want and more people with the tools to deliver what I want.
“Now the big difference is that the majority are convinced that the way I want to do things is okay and can be successful so we’re already well in front of where we were. The staff are much more capable of delivering my message as are the players that stayed on.”
Williams hopes the home games against higher-league opposition will test his side’s defensive capabilities as he gets his team ready for the different challenges that come from moving up a division.
He added: “The pre-season schedule is quite similar to last season, the big difference being there was only three days between the start of pre-season and the Basford game which was scary because I hadn’t the time to deliver any real message to the players.
“A lot of the players will already know about certain things that are completely non-negotiable that we judge players on during pre-season and there is no escaping that. Many of them have lived through that and they know.
“All the pre-season games were planned for specific reasons and both the [Stoke City and Nottingham Forest] games will be extremely difficult for us and they’ll have top players that make actions that are hard to defend against which can happen. Doing the hard work and trying to be organised is just applying yourself correctly and hopefully, those games will be a defensive exercise.”
