Notts County are looking in good shape ahead of the Sky Bet League 1 curtain-raiser with Sheffield United.
The Magpies delivered another strong performance to claim a 2-2 draw with La Liga outfit Rayo Vallecano at Meadow Lane on Tuesday evening.
It was only when the chopping and changing, typical of friendly encounters, started that County came unstuck at the back.
At the other end of the field, Alan Sheehan (the official site is reliably informed) and Yoann Arquin scored two impressive goals to round off an entertaining evening.
Following the team's penultimate pre-season encounter, first team manager Chris Kiwomya told Magpie Player: “It was a very good performance because they’re a very good team with good movement and they’re technically excellent as well.
“It was a good result for us because we did well, we had a good shape to us and we scored two good goals.
“It’s a test of fitness, organisation and communication against those teams and downright stubbornness not to concede.
“I thought we had that when we had the starting 11 on but obviously we made changes in the second half and it disrupted the flow a little bit.
“Fair play to us, even when we went 2-1 down we then started fighting again and came back and scored a very good goal.”
He added: “We’re happy with where we are and with the fitness.
“Ideally we’d like a couple of more players to come in but if not, I’m happy going into the Sheffield United game with what we’ve got.
“We’ve got to make sure that the players out there are the right players and for the right amount of money.”
You can watch full post-match reaction and highlights on Magpie Player.
For full ticket information for the Ipswich fixture, which kicks off at 3pm on Saturday 27 July, click here.