West Ham United boss David Moyes was pleased to be able to get 90 minutes into the legs of several of his senior players in a double-header of friendly matches on Tuesday night.
The manager took one team to Leyton Orient, while Stuart Pearce led another at fellow League Two aide Northampton Town, with the first team players who have already reported back for pre-season enjoying the opportunity of an early full-match run out.
Moyes watched his team battle to a 0-0 draw in east London, while the other team at Northampton secured a 2-1 victory, but the workout was the most important thing for the boss.
"I wanted to get the senior players 90 minutes on the pitch tonight, so we were pleased get that into their legs," he explained.
"There are a lot of players away just now and not back, so it’s not helping with the moment in putting strong teams out, and it was a hard game for us [at Orient].
"Orient played well and we have to give them credit for the way they played, I must say. It was tough for us, but good for the other team who won 2-1 tonight at Northampton. The two results were okay for us.
"{Most importantly] we wanted to give them 90 minutes, that’s why we split them and I’m pleased that we had the chance to do that."
The manager is looking forward to welcoming back the players involved with their countries over the summer as pre-season goes on, but says these first few weeks are equally crucial for the players he does have at his disposal as they aim to scale the heights they hit last term again.
"We’ve got a long way to go and it’s difficult at the moment where we’ve only got half the squad, but we’re trying to get everybody in the best condition we can," he continued.
"Most of them aren’t back for another two to three weeks yet, but we’ll get some of them back and start to build them up in the coming weeks.
"But the likes of Declan, the Czech boys have a few weeks to go yet. They have holiday time and they deserve it for the way they played for us last year and they did really well at the Euros. So they have time off and we’ll factor that in as well.
"We’re training the players all the time and we’re working them hard, so we’re hoping to keep building on it and we want to get back to the levels we were at last year.
"We’ve got high standards to set and we’re looking forward to doing that."
