Ex-Preston North End man recalls knocking team mate out under Graham Westley - and four hour 'army' training

Lee Trundle made just the one appearance for Preston North End - but is not short of stories from his time at Deepdale.

A prolific striker for Swansea City and Wrexham, during the noughties, North End swooped in for Trundle during the summer of 2012. Manager at the time, Graham Westley, gave a one-year deal to him, following a trial. But, he suffered a serious knee injury after catching the eye in a couple of pre-season friendly games.

Trundle came off the bench, late on in December's FA Cup win over Gillingham. A couple of months later, the centre-forward terminated his deal by mutual consent. Westley, in a previous interview, admitted he got the veteran to do elephant noises in his office. Trundle knew what he was likely letting himself in for, though.

"I had already done my homework on him a little bit, so I knew what he was about and how he worked and stuff," said Trundle. "If I am going to a football club, I want to know what this fella is about. And at the end of the day, I'd just come from being in non-league for two years and I'm getting the chance to go and play for a club like Preston. I live in Liverpool and in the north west, Preston is a big club. And at 36, if I could get a contract here, then brilliant... I think he wanted to test me on whether I was ready to buy into stuff with them. Because, the stuff he did there - you've seen it, Parky - it was not your normal, professional football club stuff, was it?

"For me, I understand why he does it and that he wants to test people's character. He wants to see your breaking point and how far you will go, to buy into things. But, if you look at the training sessions - we'd do morning, gym, afternoon. Pre-season, you have to do that. But, to do that every single day. And especially me, at 36, to go into that club. At other clubs, when I was younger, towards the end of the session the manager would always send the older lads in.

"We had a game against Morecambe, a friendly; the Friday before, he had brought this army coach in. We were carrying each other on stretchers, carrying jerry cans and army crawling the full pitch. If you stepped out of line, 15 minutes got added on. We were out there for four hours, that afternoon. And we had the friendly, the next day. I played in the friendly and did my ACL. It was off nothing, either. I got tackled, fell down - it wasn't a bad tackle - and I felt it just pop. I was thinking that all of that stuff we'd done in pre-season, can't have helped my legs."

Trundle added: "You had Lairdy on, talking about the boxing gloves. He would make us put the gloves on and we'd have to spar against people. He put me with Stucky, a big, six foot five fella. It's me and him sparring, so I was thinking 'I'm not getting hit by him'. I was going to get him first. The spar started off, I raised my hand a little bit and he moved his hand - so I just went 'Bam!'. I hit him properly and put him out. Jacko put ice on him and he was down for a little bit. After that, he never put me in the boxing again. So, it was like he was testing you. Stucky was probably thinking we'd have a little pat about, but I was not taking my chances."

Trundle explained how he first spoke to PNE's physio, Matt Jackson, about leaving Deepdale after the turn of the year. The Liverpool-born striker took it into his own hands to move on, given the training Preston's players were being put through. Despite that, Trundle's overall verdict on Westley is a positive one.

"As a fella, I know you hear all the stories that he was mad, but I got on with him," he said. "I knew why he wanted to do stuff, so I thought he was alright - as a man. Although he was mad on things, I got on well with him. I went and met Westley in a hotel, in Manchester. We had breakfast, a sit, a chat and said: 'All the best'. So, it never ended bad for us. It was still alright. At my age, with where I was, that type of training was not going to be good for me. I wasn't playing, enjoying it and just called it a day."