Runcorn Linnets manager Billy Paynter spoke with club media manager Sam Phillips the morning after our pre-season opener against Litherland REMYCA at Aintree last night. Here's what he had to say:

Sam: Billy, thanks for joining us and welcome back to a new season. What were your thoughts on last night's game?

Billy: Firstly, thanks to REMYCA for the fixture, it was a very good workout for our lads for our first pre-season game and allowed us to get Important players some much-needed match minutes in their legs. To have come away with no niggles is a huge bonus. The game in general gave us some good passages of play while also allowing us as a management team to see what bits we need to improve on.

Sam: Second half saw us make a lot of changes and bring on a good amount of trialists, How did that go in your opinion?

Billy: Always good to look at trialists to bolster the squad ahead of the new season and it was great to be able to give minutes to some of the young players in the 2nd half to assess the process of the next steps in their careers.

Sam: Once again, we had a great number of travelling fans, what is that like for the lads to have such a following for pre season?

Billy: All I can say is thank you once again to everyone who made the trip. It's always great to see so many familiar faces while also one or two new ones. The fans know how special they are to the team and how much of a big part they had in the success we had last season.

Sam: Thanks Billy and we will speak to you again next week

(The match saw Linnets 2-0 ahead early in the second half thanks to goals from Ryan Brooke and Jamie Rainford with REMYCA then responding with three unanswered goals).