Workington Town boss Phil Veivers believes his side are in better shape than they were this time last year after the club’s first week of pre-season training.

Town kicked off their preparations for 2016 last week and, although missing some players through injury, the head coach is pleased with how his squad have prepared for pre-season.

“We had a meeting on Tuesday and sorted our gear and we set some standards for how we want to approach the year,” Veivers said.

“Then we had a good gym session on the Thursday and a conditioning session to finish the week.

“I’m pretty happy with how they have come back, not many of them were that far off the pace.

“I think we’re in better shape than we were this time last year but there’s still a lot of hard work to be done.

“We’re training three times a week and they have a weights programme that they take away with them so they are doing weights four or five days a week and then training three days. Chris Murphy is in his second year with us as strength and conditioning coach.

“Last year was a sort of induction and the boys really enjoyed what he had to offer. He’s looking to improve on last year and he’s coming up with some good ideas for us to use.”

Veivers is still hopeful that further signings can be made before the season starts to help bolster the squad.

“I’ve only got 23 at the moment and we’ll have to wait and see who we can bring in,” he continued.

“I’ve got Graeme Mattinson who is still recovering from his injury.

“Latu Fifita is limited in what he can do and I’m missing Mark Shackley and Tom Walker.

“I’ve lost those through injury but we’ve only brought a couple in.

“We’ve announced our second pre-season friendly [against Whitehaven] and I won’t be too upset if we can’t organise a third due to the injuries that we’ve got.”