Town skipper ready to work hard

And that is from a man who knows all about it having started his 14th pre-season at Town.

It is safe to say much has changed since the 32-year-old’s arrival in 2003 but as Town continue their pre-season preparations with a friendly at Tranmere Rovers tonight, Pond says the key is to keep the tempo up.

Town have prepared so far with a training camp in Austria, followed by last Saturday’s 2-0 victory against Bolton Wanderers.

However, Pond believes there is still room for improvement before they host Rotherham United in their opening game on the League One season on August 5.

The Millers have a familiar forward line with two strikers Pond knows all about after summer swoops for Town’s out of contract top scorer David Ball and former Fleetwood hotshot Jamie Proctor.

Pond said: “We need to be ready come match day against Rotherham.

“That is what we are working towards, we need to be right on our first game and prepared for that.”

With new players like Conor McAleny, Harvey Rodgers, Lewie Coyle and Jordy Hiwula joining Kyle Dempsey in integrating into the squad, Pond says there is still much to learn from both the new boys and the remaining chunk of the side that steered Town to their highest league finish last term.

He said: “The new signings playing in certain roles, doing certain jobs, they can improve.

“Players who have already been here, they can improve and help the other players.”

Tranmere will have some familiar faces in their camp tonight with manager Micky Mellon as well as Scott Davies, Steve McNulty, Andy Mangan and Jeff Hughes.

Davies told Rovers’ website: “Fleetwood Town are one of the teams I always look out for and see how they’re doing.

“I have great memories from my time there and we had a lot of success. We won a couple of promotions and from a personal point of view, I captained the club at one point so I enjoyed my time there.”