The way that Halstead Town’s players have conducted their own summer preparations has put manager Mark Benterman’s own pre-season plans ahead of schedule.

The Humbugs’ players came back for their opening pre-season training session last weekend and have continued this week and Benterman said he had been impressed by what he had seen.

Far from players coming back with fitness work to catch up on, the Town boss said a lot of the Halstead squad had returned fitter than he had expected them to be and that had allowed him to progress his plans further than he had thought.

Benterman said: “We started off the first session with a bleep test and I was very pleased by the way they performed.

“We said we wanted them to be on level 12, but about 50 per cent of them were reaching level 14 so they had come back fitter than we had imagined they would.

“There will always be one or two who have work to do, but to have most of them ahead of schedule is great because it allows us to move quicker through the plans we had.

“I didn’t expect to be going through organisational and technical stuff until the third or fourth week, but we’re already looking at that.

“That’s brilliant for us and I’m proud of what they’ve done.

“The evidence that I’ve seen so far is that the boys have clearly brought into what we’re looking to achieve this year.”