Kevin Nolan has tough pre-season scheduled for Notts County players

Kevin Nolan has warned of a pre-season programme that will be tough from day one for the Notts County players, insisting that he wants to hit the ground running going into next season.

The Magpies players will report back to camp on Friday, with a host of tricky friendlies to come in July plus a difficult start in League Two in August with Coventry City and Chesterfield the first two opponents.

Nolan reminisced about how pre-season is a much more intricate - and kinder - affair to when he was starting out in the game, and also talked about how he's been unable to switch off now he's in the hotseat as opposed to just a player.

He told the official Notts site: "I wasn't liking the first few weeks, having to deal with agents and receiving a lot of texts and phone calls, but it's something I have to learn to deal with if I am to be a successful manager.

"It has been a strange summer because I have not been able to switch off, which I used to do as a player. There were usually three-to-four weeks I would spend away from football and not really think about it but it was constantly on my mind this summer.

"Since I have been back in, I have got the bug back and I'm really looking forward to the opening day of the season against Coventry. This will be my 19th pre-season but there is still plenty of life in the old dog yet!

"Comparing pre-season from when I started out at 16 with how it is nowadays, things are totally different. Usually on the first day people would be sick and, if you weren't, the coaches would work you until you were! Everything has changed now with sports science and so on.

"We have a great pre-season planned for the lads and I just hope they are doing their own work in the off-season so they can come in and hit the ground running because we don't have an awful lot of time. From day one it will be tough for the boys but I'm looking forward to seeing them again."

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