Following this afternoon's defeat to Newcastle United in a behind-closed-doors friendly, we spoke to Mark Hughes.
Speaking to CUTV, he said: "I enjoyed it, its two quality games we've had in pre-season now and that's going to bring us on leaps and bounds.
"So, yeah, two 45's again, so we'll start building up to 60s and 75s and 90s for the remaining games that we've got. So everybody's working exceptionally hard, good effort today against predominantly Premier League players, so it's always going to be a test, but for the most part we equipped ourselves reasonably well.
"A few mistakes, some self-inflicted, but that's early season, that can happen, but overall pleased with what we're producing.
"We knew we had to try and get close to good quality players, if you don't then they can hurt you, but once again we didn't go strong in the first team and then weaker in the second. We tried to balance it out and make sure that we were competitive in both halves, which I felt we were. So overall, yeah, very pleasing.
"We thank Newcastle obviously for allowing us to take the game. It'll be invaluable, lots of money in the bank, it's good minutes against good quality opposition, which will help us in the National League when the season starts.
"We didn't do a great deal wrong, but we're just happy that we've been able to get a quality game on the back of a good exercise the last time out against Motherwell. We're progressing well."
The Blues now head to Wales for their pre-season training camp, speaking on the benefits that could have, Hughes said: "We're still quite a new group, a lot of new faces, so that will help them to integrate. So we'll take that and we've got a lot of detail that we want to put into the players in terms of what we're trying to do in certain situations. We haven't done a great deal of work on that. It's been more physical element that we need to put into them in the early weeks of the season, but yeah, very quickly we'll start throwing a little bit more meat on the bone."
On the National League fixtures, Mark said: "Typical opening game, but its followed by a couple of home games, so that's a good opportunity for us to make a real statement right at the beginning. We want to get momentum to our season as early as we can."
Ending with a message for United's faithful, Mark said: "I hope they're as excited as I am. I see good signs at the moment. We've got new faces and I think they'll enjoy what they'll bring to the squad. We've got a few weeks yet before the season starts, but we're looking forward to it."
