Brett Whaley has seen his Wisbech Town team progress since lockdown, but knows the hard work is just beginning.

The Fenmen won five and lost three from their eight pre-season friendlies, scoring 15 and conceding 13 against sides ranging from steps three to six of the non-league pyramid.

Nine of those goals conceded came in their previous two games against step three side Peterborough Sports on Tuesday and fellow step four outfit Soham Town Rangers last Saturday.

Wisbech have welcomed a catalogue of new signings during the coronavirus pandemic, and having used a wealth of players during the 2019-20 campaign, boss Whaley aims to change plan.

“I suppose it’s a case of being ready to go and getting into those competitive games,” he said.

“I know we’ve had a lot of friendlies, but we could have done with another game at our level because we’ve tried a lot of things and when you play the likes of Peterborough Sports and Soham, if you make a mistake, you get punished.

“We had a lot of players at Wisbech last year, and we don’t want that this year. We want them to be a tight group and we have focused on making sure it’s the same boys doing the same things.”

One of the key things Whaley wants his players to learn is how to adapt their playing style, something they’ve tried to do during pre-season.

Wisbech start the new campaign at lower-league Haverhill Rovers in an FA Cup preliminary round tie on Saturday, September 12 (3pm) before visiting Leek Town in their Northern Premier League, South East Division opener on September 19.

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“I’m very conscious that although we have made progression, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Whaley said.

“It’s easy to say on a whiteboard this is how we’re going to play, but other sides will do things to stop your style.

“I think that only comes with experience in playing different sides, which is why the last two games have been important for us.

“They asked us questions that sides won’t be asking us week in, week out, but if they do, we feel we’ve got some experience against that now.

“When we go to Haverhill, I think one of the concerns we’ve got is if you go in with just one way of playing and it doesn’t work, you’ve got nowhere to go.”