WORCESTER City boss Andy Preece believes his team go into today's match with a Bristol Rovers XI (3pm) at St George's Lane on the back of their best pre-season performance of the campaign so far.

Preece watched his side draw 1-1 with Walsall on Thursday night in a game they led until the 80th minute and is looking for a repeat performance.

"I think that is the best we have played in pre-season by a long way," he said.

"We pushed a League Two outfit right to the end and I thought we were unfortunate not to win the game.

"There was some really, really good play and we opened up their defence on a number of occasions. We just weren't clinical enough with our final ball.

"But the way we opened them up was encouraging. I'm really, really pleased.

"I couldn't be more pleased. It's just a shame we didn't finish the game and win it."

Preece only made one substitution during the match but insists those players who didn't get on to the pitch will still get a chance to force their way into his plans.

"We didn't want to make too many changes and wanted to test our fitness levels," he said.

"A number of people did themselves no harm at all but there are still places up for grabs."

And Preece will wait until after today's match before deciding whether to keep trialists Jay Sztybel, Tom Birch, Adam Wooton and Shane Cartwright.

He confirmed "one or two will get a run-out" against the West Country side.

After all the good work against Walsall, the City player-manager does not want the standard to drop against another League Two outfit. He said: "They have looked like they have increased their squad over pre-season. They are obviously going to have a good go for it this season.

"It will be another tough test for us. They are a League Two side and their team is going to be full of first-team players with lots of league experience.

"If we can equip ourselves as well as we did on Thursday, I will be delighted."

Adam Burley came through 90 minutes on Thursday after recovering from a back injury and could well feature again.

Many of Rovers' stronger players were set to feature against Plymouth last night.