Defender out to cement place in team ahead of squad competition

Emmerson Boyce admits that whilst last season was frustrating for him at times he's ready to battle for a place in the team this season and, as always, give everything to the cause;

"Half of last season was a bit frustrating for me, but you put your trust in the manager that he does the best for the team," said Boyce.

"Everybody wants to play and whether I'm playing right-back, centre-back or left-back I'll always give 100% for the team and hopefully be good enough to make the line-up.

In order to do that now is the time to make sure the players' bodies are ready to cope with the demands of a long season, and Boyce explained how the team have been fairing so far during pre-season;

He said; "We've been to Sweden already and done plenty of work back in Wigan so the sharpness and match-fitness is getting better all the time.

"The season's coming and we want to be ready so we're working hard and with a faces still to come in the squad continues to get stronger and stronger.

"Now we've come to Austria and we've been here a few years on the run now so we know what to expect when we arrive.

"It's great for team bonding, the lads are all getting along really well and we want to keep putting the hard work into practice."

The defender was talking after Latics' 4-1 friendly win over NK Rudar, and despite being disappointed with not keeping a clean-sheet believes now is the time to learn from your errors;

"We kept the ball well and it was a good fitness exercise for us and managed to get the goals as well.

"We're disappointed with the goal we conceded, but you can take that in pre-season, learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen when the league kicks-off."