Lee Johnson is confident Hibernian’s warm-weather training camp in Portugal will ensure they hit the ground running this weekend.
The Easter Road side host Clyde on Saturday as the competitive action gets under way in the Premier Sports Cup.
The capital outfit will have been back training for only three weeks come kick-off and have packed in a lot of work on and off the pitch under new manager Johnson.
But, after friendly wins over Hartlepool and Burton Albion during their week in the Algarve, Johnson insists he is happy with the progress being made ahead of their group stage opener.
The former Hearts and Kilmarnock midfielder, who is still targeting a central defender and attacker, said: “We need to be organised going into competitive games so early. We were challenged in the games we played, the boys stood up to it, and I honestly think they enjoyed it.
“They were tired at the end of the trip, but it’s about getting that balance and rejuvenating them, so we can hit the ground running.
“It’s a delicate balance because you want to go into the games fresh enough so you can perform.
“We had fans there, and when you have fans there you want to put on a show. I thought the lads did in the second game [Burton, a 4-2 win]; four goals scored, and that’s the impact we want on the performances. They were two tough games for different reasons but we’ve come through them.
“We needed to push the boys as well but didn’t want injuries. It’s almost like how far do you stretch an elastic band before it snaps and, touch-wood at the moment, the boys are in good shape.
“We’re bedding in our principles. It’s been nice that we won our two games because that creates a buy-in from the lads, especially when the lads perform well individually.
“Listen, Portugal was a really good week, but it’s the foundations for us, ready for when the season kicks off.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here