York City's pre-season plan mapped out with fitness targeted
YORK City will reunite in less than a week’s time as pre-season training gets underway on Monday, June 29.
Manager Stuart Maynard may not have got the time to get a deserved holiday this off-season, but it’s hasn’t dried up his appetite to get back into the football swing at the end of June.
York are readying themselves for a first season back in Sky Bet League Two in a decade, having celebrated a record-breaking season where they earned 108 points, and topped the Enterprise National League table to win the title.
Highly-ambitious City will be aiming to go back-to-back, and for Maynard, he cannot wait to get back on the training pitch to give the Minstermen the best chance of doing so.
The first target for York to hit will be for them to hit the fitness level he requires of his players, with the boss believing their selection of pre-season friendlies will contribute to that.
“We’re back on the 29th of June. We’re excited, we can’t wait, we’re all really looking forward to it,” Maynard enthused to The Press.
“We had spoken about it [friendlies], and I’m big on finding a way to get the players fit.
“I like to play local teams, because it helps out with our revenue with the fanbase we’ll bring.
“I think it really helps, and it’s really good to have a mix of higher league oppositions coming to our place for our fans to see us get tested, and see where we’re at with the fitness levels.
“It’s about getting fit, and then getting the detail in again from last season, to keep improving it and playing against teams that will really challenge you.
“It’s about getting that mixture and blend right, it doesn’t bother me too much who we play in that sense, but I like to play the local teams and then a few bigger teams.”
City kick-off their pre-season campaign on Saturday, July 11, when Barnsley make the visit to the LNER Community Stadium (3pm).
A local visit, as Maynard wanted, follows when the Minstermen head to Mill Lane to take on Pickering Town on Tuesday, July 14 (7.30pm), before an exciting clash against Europa League bound Sunderland on Saturday, July 18 (3pm).
As of right now, York will finish their pre-season preparations on Tuesday, July 28 against League One side Peterborough United (7.30pm), before they enter the Carabao Cup preliminary round on Monday, August 3 (7.30pm) and their League Two campaigns starts on the weekend of August 14-16.
The Sunderland friendly in particular stands out as an enticing fixture for York, with their Black Cat visitors making the trip down ahead of their Premier League and Europa League campaign.
Maynard hopes a huge crowd will turn up for the fixture at the LNER Community Stadium, saying: “It’ll be a big crowd, a huge crowd.
“That’s good, it’s good for the community again and it’ll show once against how far York City have come, and how we’ve come together as a football club.
“It’ll probably be a sell out and it’s going to be brilliant.
“I think we have sold five-and-a-half thousand season tickets, I’m expecting it to probably be a sell out every week.
“I’m really looking forward to it.”
Ahead of York’s return to pre-season, Maynard hasn’t switched off from the football, doing analysis work and studying his coaching licenses to help be best prepared for the new campaign.
He explained: “I’ve been watching lots of footage from League Two, watching lots of players.
“I’m in Belfast at the minute doing my A license, it’s been non-stop has my brain!
“My daughter is doing her GCSE’s so we haven’t really had a chance to go away yet.”
