Kevin Nolan eager for Notts County to return to the pitch

Kevin Nolan has expressed his joy with things moving forward in the 2017/18 season as the first Notts County pre-season friendly looms ever closer.

The Magpies will take on a Rolls Royce Leisure Select XI on Saturday afternoon, the first of more than 50 fixtures to take place until next May.

"It will be nice to be involved in competitive games again," Nolan told the official site. "Their players will give it their all and it's up to our lads to make sure they do a professional job.

"Everyone will get minutes against Rolls Royce to move them forward to next week's training sessions so we can carry on the work we have started since coming back.

"We know what we want and what we need to get out of our pre-season games.

"No disrespect to any team we play from now until the end of pre-season, but it is all about making sure we are prepared for the season.

"That means we have to be injury-free with the players hitting their targets in terms of minutes under their belt.

"Everything [for pre-season] has been planned for a few months now and hopefully at the end of it the players will be champing at the bit because we have a really tough start."

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