Goalkeepers may be seen as a different breed on the field, but when it comes to the rigours of pre-season, they're treated no differently to any other professionals - forced to endure the same tortuous start to the summer full of work, hard work, and even more work!

Andy Lonergan, though, appreciates that getting off to the best possible start during pre-season poses no harm to any player, whether they're more renowned for work with boots or gloves.

"My regime doesn't differ at the start of pre-season, even though I'm a keeper," he told PNE.com. 

"I do everything that everybody else does, and though you sometimes think you shouldn't have to be doing the same sort of work as them, it's only a couple of weeks like that and it's good to show the management that you're as fit as the rest of the team, and that you've been working hard during the summer.

"I don't think pre-season ever gets any easier, but you can dictate how hard it's going to be by what you do during the summer. I've worked hard this summer so I was able to feel comfortable throughout the first day, even though it was really hard work.

"I don't think I would have wanted to do any more than we did - it was pretty much spot on. It's not like a normal coaching session, and though you feel fairly alright straight afterwards, you feel it the next morning.

"I think in the first day of pre-season training I ran more than I'll run in the whole season, but it's good to do it, and you then look forward to doing more of the goalkeeper-specific work.

"We've had a session or two with Dave Timmins doing the goalkeeping work, and it's good to get your new gloves on and get to grips with the feel of the ball again.

"The hope now is that we can get through a good pre-season and start the new season the way we were playing towards the end of the last one, carrying things on from there."