Worksop Town setting high standards says Liam Hughes

The management team have put the squad through their paces this early into pre-season with hard fitness work that helped the Tigers dominate the friendly against the National League North.

And Hughes explained the benefits of these elements coming together.

The forward said: “At this stage of pre-season, it is more about minutes in the legs, but we do need to bring that winning mentality now and it is good to test ourselves against teams in higher divisions and it is always good to get victories against these sorts of teams.

“The pleasing thing for me is that we have come off the pitch and the lads are tired, and they have worked hard for each other, and we have look at our stats there in the dressing room and they’re good, so we now to build on what we have done.

“The sessions that Tomo (Ben Tomlinson), the gaffer (Craig Parry), Jeffsy (Luke Jeffs), and Whitey (Mark Whitehouse) put on are fantastic and the set-up is amazing.

“It is professional and exactly what you want as a player, and it is demanding and that’s how standards are raised.

“You find out which players are going to dig in for each other and every single lad to a man has been class.

“I cannot praise them enough and that will only help us grow as a group.”

Hughes’ movement and aerial ability created opportunities for others, allowing him to provide an assist to Luke Hall.

The forward praised the combination play of the side.

He added: “The quality throughout the side is fantastic and I always felt we looked a threat all the time and going forward we had runners and our movement was great.

“We could play short and long and that is what we’re going to have to do which is to stick it on teams and we now need to build on that today and just have that confidence to keep on believing in this group because we are good at what we are capable of.

“I am annoyed that I haven’t scored today because of the number of opportunities that I have had but I am delighted to get an assist with Luke, who produced a great finish.”​​​​​​​