Cobblers assistant Knill says Brighton training camp was a big success

The Cobblers squad, including four trialists, headed to the south coast last Monday and spent the week training together in preparation for the season.

They also played two pre-season friendlies, first beating Worthing 5-2 before they were held to a goalless draw at Burgess Hill Town on Saturday.

Trialists Sam Hoskins and Rod McDonald featured in both games but Gozie Ugwa missed out on Saturday having picked up a knock against Worthing.

Speaking about the training camp, Knill said: “It was excellent. It was just really good to get the players together. We’ve got some new players and they’ve all integrated really well.

“The lads all seem to get on well so it’s been a real positive week.

“There’s lots that we still need to work on but the most important thing is that it was another 60 or 70 minutes for some and it’s at the end of a tough week so we expected everyone to be tired.

“Obviously the most important thing is the first game of the season and that’s where we want to be, but it’s been a good week and our last three games have been good workouts.”

Cobblers have four pre-season games remaining, starting with this Saturday’s home friendly against Derby County before fellow Championship side Birmingham City come to Sixfields three days later.

“Now we’ve got a tougher week ahead as we have Derby and then Birmingham, so it’s a step up in opposition but I have to say that it’s been a really good week for us,” Knill added.

“We’re looking forward to the games coming up. It really will tell us where we are fitness wise because the quality of the opposition we’re playing means they’ll have more of the ball than us so it’ll be a good marker in terms of where we are.”