Assistant boss Stewart Yetton praised a ‘very professional performance’ from his Truro City side as they started pre-season with a 5-0 win over Tavistock.
In searing temperatures at Langsford Park, goals from Connor Riley-Lowe and C Trialist gave a dominant visiting outfit a 2-0 interval lead.
And after the turnaround, with City fielding a completely different 11, Dominic Johnson-Fisher bagged a quick-fire brace before B Trialist, who missed a penalty just shy of the hour mark, emphatically finished a training ground free-kick routine, to complete the scoring.
“It was a very worthwhile exercise to get 45 minutes in all the players’ legs,” Yetton told trurocity.co.uk. “We are in a position where we could change the 11 at half-time and to come away without any injuries, whilst delivering a very professional performance is pleasing.
“It was very warm, but limiting the minutes for the lads was always the plan. They have had a very tough week and so therefore will have the weekend off, because the game against Tavistock was a perfect exercise for us.
“We weren’t really troubled and although Tavistock had a few entries into our box during the first half, they didn’t have a shot of any note. We are pleased with the fitness that shone through in the second half.
“Results aren’t that important in pre-season as it is more about the players’ attitude, in terms of what they do on and off the ball. We are very pleased that all the lads had the right level of attitude here at Tavistock.
“We thank Stu (Henderson, Tavistock manager), because we know he was struggling to get a team together a few days ago. He pulled together a good 18, making it a very worthwhile exercise for us.”
There were further positives for City with Seidou Sanogo making a playing return for the first time since September, after he suffered a broken leg in a freak training ground incident, which ruled him out of the rest of Truro’s title winning campaign.
“It was nice for Seidou to get back on the pitch,” Yetton added. “He was nearing full fitness towards the back end of last season, but he was still running with a bit of a limp, so we didn’t want to rush his return.
“We took our foot off the gas with Seidou’s return to protect him and give him extra recovery time. It is nice to see him back and involved with full training and to get through 45 minutes, with him moving well, is very encouraging.”
After a first week back in training and full-time football too, Yetton revealed that managing players’ workloads has been important, with many stepping to a new schedule for the first time since youth team and academy days.
City’s all-time leading goal scorer said: “Where we have transitioned into full-time and not a lot of players have done that for a while, so there is a degree of acclimatising once again for our boys. We have done a lot of work with the boys this week, as you do in pre-season, but we don’t want it to be too much of a shock to the system.
“This week overall will stand us in good stead for the rest of pre-season and as the days progress, with the games to come, we will be able to give boys more minutes.”
