PORTLAND United kick-started their pre-season campaign earlier this week with their first session after the summer break.

The Blues’ training schedule will be led by new assistant-manager Kyle Critchell.

And as they step up to Sydenhams Wessex Cne next term, manager Gary Bailey is excited to hit the ground running with the island club’s preparations.

“It makes it real and it marks the start of it,” he told Echosport.

“If you can’t get excited about a season when you have been promoted for a new challenge then you are never going to get excited.

“There is going to be a lot of hard work involved but the players know that and they respect that.

“Every game now this season is what we were looking for last year, it’s a step into the unknown and a great challenge for us.

“It is going to be fun and it is going to be tough as well. It’s a bit of a new era really.”

Going into more detail about their pre-season plans, Bailey added: “It’s Kyle’s bag and he has planned some really good sessions. We have had some good planning meetings which have gone really well.

“Pre-season, like it or hate it, will obviously be fitness-based and we are well aware that we have only got a short window of time before we play our first pre-season game and in no time at all it will be the start of the season in August.”

The Blues start their league campaign with a trip to Fleet Spurs on Saturday, August 8, and the Portland chief, whose side were runners-up in the Dorset Premier League last term, is up for the challenge the first game brings.

Commenting on their season opener, he added: “I am quite happy with it really.

“It’s one of the longer trips we have and we will get it out of the way when we are all really enthusiastic about it.

“Every game now is a fresh challenge and we have to approach it like it could be our hardest game of the season.”