Experienced winger, Mark Marshall, has described the beginning of pre-season training as being one of the toughest he can remember.

The Addicks flew to their Portmarnock training base on Saturday, and began their preparations the same afternoon.

Sunday was a long day. Karl Robinson’s squad had a 45 minute run and ballwork session at 7.00am, followed by another session at 11.00am, then more work in the afternoon, and a gym session at 6.00pm.

The day ended with a team meeting at 9.00pm. Here are Marshall’s thoughts:

“I’ve been nodding off whenever I get the chance. The beach run we did this morning was quite hard and the distance is quite deceiving.

“You see the red hut at the start but as you run it seems like it gets further and further away!

“Obviously, the gaffer wants us to be fit and in this league you need to be able to run.

“A lot of it, at the moment, is mind over matter. The boys are dragging each other through it and when you hear that positive voice it gives you that little bit of extra energy to keep going.”

No player looks forward to the pre-season slog, but they all recognise it’s value.

Robinson has an intensive week planned, before briefly‎ returning to London at the weekend. The first warm-up game against Crumlin United will be played next Monday.

Charlton will travel to the west coast to face Limerick the following night, ‎before returning to Dublin to play UCD on Wednesday 12 July.

A hectic week will be completed with games against Welling and Greenwich Borough on Saturday 15 July.

The players will get the opportunity to enjoy themselves with an evening off later in the week as Robinson explained:

“The boys will get a night off where they can let their hair down, I’m not that strict. Primarily, we are here to work. You don’t get success by just turning up.‎”