All the talk ends here as Leighton Town get set to kick off their new season away at Marlow next Saturday.
With pre-season all but out of the way, Craig Wells’ side will be looking to put the torrid end to the last campaign well in the past, with a much more stable affair this time around.
Saturday saw Town play their final home friendly game against Hemel Hempstead.
But in the week building up to the game, Wells was without eight first teamers as injuries and summer holidays took their toll as Town went down 3-1.
And Town’s troubles weren’t helped when Jake Bewley had to be taken to hospital after colliding with his own goalkeeper.
He suffered a cut to the head, which doctors glued back together, before being sent home later the same night.
Despite the defeat though, Wells felt his side put in the best performance since his return to the helm.
He said: “I must say that I thought the lads put in their best pre-season performance from my perspective with them starting to resemble patterns of play and a structure that I’ve asked them to play.”
Town take on Tottenhoe in their final pre-season game of the season tonight (Tuesday), but after months of rebuilding, renegotiating and reinvigorating the club, Wells admits he’d like another two weeks to be fully prepared for the season ahead.
“To be honest,” he said, “we could do with a little bit longer.
“I know a lot of people are eager to get the season underway, but I think with a couple more games, we’d be in a really great position to start the new season.
“We are still finding our way a bit - we’re still getting used to the new system. I don’t want to hoof the ball long, I want them to get the ball down and play.
“But it’s not just that - we’ve got a lot of new faces and we want to run the rule over them fully and make sure they understand what we expect of them.”
While the statisticians might look at Town’s results during the pre-season campaign and only see four defeats, Wells is keen to express how pleased he is with how his side have performed during the summer.
“It has been our best pre-season for a while,” he said. “There’s only so much you can learn from playing lower league opposition.
“I wanted to test us against top teams. Teams like Hemel Hempstead - they finished in the Premier Division play-off places last season, so they’re no slouches.
“We played MK Dons and chased shadows for 90 per cent of the game - but that’s what I wanted.
“The lads have trained so hard in the summer, getting the fitness back to where it needs to be, and they’re nearly ready.”
And now on the brink of the new season, Wells believes his side could raise a few eyebrows.
He said: “We aren’t aiming to go out there and finish one place higher than we did last year.
“We think we can surprise a few teams.”