Shrewsbury Town Full-Back James Bolton was pleased to get another 90 minutes under his belt against Burton Albion on Saturday.
The game was a stop-start affair with Burton playing the final 60 minutes with 10 men after Marvin Sordell was sent-off for a rash tackle on Abu Ogogo.
“It was a weird game to be honest”, James told the Press.
“It was very slow and not really what you want in the last game because you want it to be like the first game of the season.
“Obviously they went down to 10-men which took the edge out of it a little bit, but if you look at the positives we’ve won again and that’s another win against a Championship team.
“It wasn’t the best of games, but it always reflects well on the defence if there is a clean-sheet, so hopefully there will be more of them come the start of the season.”
Bolton has slotted in nicely at right-back and is now looking to form a partnership with the likes of Shaun Whalley and Alex Rodman on the right-hand-side.
“I really like the role that I’ve taken here and I feel like I’ve done alright since coming in”, said Bolton.
“If you swap your wingers it gives you fresh legs and fresh ideas. Both Shaun and Alex are really good on my side. They get back well and do my job for me if they can.
“Obviously, the partnership won’t come straight away, but we’ve had three or four games now where we’ve done alright and we’ve linked up quite well, so hopefully more of the same.”
Town now have one final week of training ahead of the big kick-off and James is hopeful the side will be ready come August 5th.
“I think the Gaffer will make us work just as hard this week”, James admitted.
“With all the stats we have now, apparently you’ve got to keep the same level. Obviously you won’t be doing quite as much running, but the high intensity part has got to be there.
“You can never tell whether you are ready. I’ve done plenty of pre-seasons and you can fly all pre-season and get beat in the first game and then you can do the opposite, so you can’t really tell until you start playing.”