Pools take on Greenock Morton (kick-off 7.30pm) in their first warm-up game for the new campaign, just 10 days after they returned to pre-season training.



Barker said the going had been tough since going back to work, with the Pools players being subjected to long-distance runs, drills and bleep tests.

But the 33-year-old is adamant that no amount of cardio work is a substitute for the match fitness gained from playing games.

Barker said: "You can do as much track work as you want, but you get your fitness from playing football.

"We will all gladly take football matches over running tracks any day.

"Just about everyone has beaten their fitness results from last year and last year was an unbelievable record.

"Everyone has come back fitter and I don't know how they do it. Maybe I'm just getting a bit old."

Ball sessions have been a rarity in the opening days of training with Pools boss Danny Wilson concentrating on getting his squad in decent shape for the pre-season fixtures.

But Barker is expecting that to change in the opening game of the club's tour of Scotland, as Wilson gives a few clues over who will be involved in the league campaign.

"From the manager's point of view we get to see what he wants us to achieve out of this season and the way he wants us to play," said Barker.

"It was difficult last week to get any tactics or any team-work done because there has been a lot of fitness work.

"This week will be the first time we talk about how we are going to play as a team and different formations and all that sort of stuff."