Nuttall off the mark in pre-season

Fresh from scoring in the pre-season training game at Middlesbrough Under-23s on Saturday, striker Joe Nuttall says he and his team-mates will keep working hard to 'right the wrongs' of last season as United prepare for National League football in 2022-23.

The 25-year-old played his first 45 minutes since May on Saturday, and will be looking to build on a solid first week-and-a-half's return to training over the coming weeks as the Iron get ready for the season start on Saturday, August 6th.

He told Iron Player: "Obviously going into the new season we're trying to right a lot of wrongs from last year. The manager has been constantly on to us about improving and getting better before the season starts, so Saturday's game was a good chance to put things into practice. I thought there were some positives, and also some stuff that still needs fine-tuning.

"It was beneficial for fitness and to put into practice what we've been working on in training.

"We always want to win, we're all competitive and it's in our nature to win games, but at this stage it's about fitness, fine-tuning and making sure that come the start of the season we're at our peak and have a real group understanding of how the manager wants us to play."

Talking about his goal which came about from persistence and pressuring the home goalkeeper and defence, he said: "I always want to get goals in every game I play. To get one in the first pre-season game is a confidence booster and hopefully I can keep that ticking over and running for the rest of pre-season into the season as well."

He continued: "It's been tough, but we need to be fit, we need to be ready and our aim is to be the fittest team in the league so we can dominate on the ball, win the ball back quicker and hopefully try and 'run over' other teams with our fitness.

"I've done a lot in the close season and always do. I like to keep on top of things. I've put a lot of work in with Feens (Iron midfielder Liam Feeney) over the summer. We didn't take very long off and it's been beneficial to both us and the team I think."

See much more from Joe Nuttall and Keith Hill on iFollow Iron.