COVENTRY City manager Aidy Boothroyd says he wants his side to overreach physically in pre-season to be ready for the start of the 2010/11 campaign.

The Sky Blues boss has been working his squad with double training sessions to get them ready for the season opener against Portsmouth at the Ricoh Arena on August 7 and he said it was a case of training hard to be able to play hard when there are points at stake.

"We need to now take it up a level after Northampton and rise to the occasion and get something out of the Walsall game like we have done in all the friendlies before that." he said.

"We want to overreach physically and mentally and develop a mental as well as a physical toughness.

"Both of those aspects are required to win because when you're tired it's important to find resources you never knew you had to push you through and in pre-season it has been so far so good.

"Winning is a mental understanding of how the game is going and what you need to do to get a result and I think alot of the guys here don't know how good they can be.

"I'm just looking forward to pushing the lads to be all they can be."

Check out Aidy Boothroyd's FULL post match interview on Sky Blues Player NOW!!!