The Pools players began their preparations for the new campaign at Maiden Castle today, knowing they will be in for a tough 10 days of fitness training before the pre-season tour to Scotland gets underway on July 15.

Some of the younger players on the fringes of the starting 11, such as David Foley and Jonny Rowell will be hoping to impress Wilson sufficiently in training to force their way into his plans.

And the Pools boss is adamant that players who put in the work during pre-season will be given their chance when the campaign gets underway on August 9.

Wilson said: "I am not worried about reputations – I only pick teams that we think can go and win games.

"If a young kid comes through and proves himself they will be given an opportunity like we have done before here.

"The young players and the ones on the fringes have got to make an impact, although we don't want to put too much pressure on them.

"The likes of David Foley and James Brown have got to pull up their standards and command a place in the team."

Pools fitness coach Dan Lewis will spend the first few days putting the squad through their paces through cardio, weights and aerobic work.
The players will also be tested to make sure they have not over-indulged over the summer months.

Every member of the squad has been given fitness programmes over the close season though to make sure they have not put on too much weight.

Wilson said there would not be too much work done on tactics or set-pieces before the first pre-season game at Greenock Morton.

But the Pools boss will get down to some tactics, if he is able to bring in new recruits before that opening warm-up game.

"The players have had programmes all summer so they will have a certain standard of fitness," he said.

"We will test them and they will be working very hard.

"We can't do a great deal more than fitness work.There will be areas we need to tweak but the lads know the score by now.

"If we can bring players into one or two areas, we will need to work on that."

Meanwhile former Pools loanee and transfer target Darryl Duffy has joined Bristol Rovers for £100,000 from Swansea.

Another old boy midfielder Chris Llewellyn has signed a two-year deal with League Two outfit Grimsby Town following his release by Wrexham at the end of last season.