Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has said that the players are looking forward to the Grecians opening pre-season match at Tiverton Town.
City make the annual trip to the Ian Moorcroft Stadium on Friday night to open their pre-season account ahead of the 23/24 League One season.
"The boys are looking forward to it so the running decreases!" said Gary. "It's been a difficult start to pre-season, they have been working really hard and have come back in good condition.
"There will be a mixture of first team players, academy players. There will be two teams for 45 minutes each and we are training the morning of the game too so it's not like a normal game where we are fully rested.
"I'm not expecting to see the finished article of what we want to be during the season because the players are still very much playing and training under fatigue, but there are some tactical things we want to see in the game and we want to win the game - that's the mentality whenever we play."
Speaking about the importance of playing our local teams, Gary added: "I've done it wherever I've been manager, it's really important we support our local teams and next season we will aim to add more. It's important we get as big a crowd as we can for Tiverton to get some finances in and it's important we go and show our professionalism and humility and play in the right way.
"I'm sure it will be a difficult game as the Tiverton players will be up for it and will want to show how good they are and we will have to perform at our best on the day."
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