North End boss Paul Heckingbottom hails positive Spanish trip
Preston players will start to feel the benefit of the hard yards they have put in during their pre-season trip to Spain.
That’s the view of boss Paul Heckingbottom who has been pleased with the work his players have undertaken in extremely hot conditions.
The squad enjoyed a run-out against Cambridge United at Pinatar Arena, in Murcia, on Friday morning.
It ended in a 1-0 defeat against the U’s, with Isaac Heath scoring the decisive goal midway through the first half, capitalising on a mistake by PNE No.1 Daniel Iversen.
However, the manager was grateful to get more match minutes into his players’ legs.
He told the club’s website: “It's been a really productive week.
“When we get back, we'll be preparing slightly differently for games and it will be more about the performance.
"Not necessarily results, but doing the right things, doing the things when we're back home then that we want to see in that first game.
“The positives are the conditioning and the fitness.
“We've had it all week. We've been getting up at 8am, doing runs before breakfast.
“We've been training in the morning to try and beat the worst of the heat but it's still been hot.
"Then we've been in the gym at five o'clock and then trained again in the evening at six. So, we've done a lot.
“The players have been fantastic and worked really hard. The temperature's made for a bit of a false game.
"We don't want to play like that when we're in the middle of December at home and it will be a totally different game.
“When we get back next week, I’m sure the lads will start to feel the benefit.”