City of Liverpool manager Paul McNally is looking to get off to a good start starting with their FA Cup encounter against Penistone Church.
They welcome the Northern Counties East side on Saturday as they look to progress to the next round.
The winner of Prestwich Heys and neighbours Bootle await the victors of the Extra Preliminary Round.
McNally is pleased with the pre-season preparations and is excited to get underway against the Church.
“You can never gauge anything off pre-season, I’m happy with how we’ve gone about our preparations,” McNally told Off The Park. “The fitness is building, we’ve had good performances but it’s nothing to be looked into, everything that we planned was all geared up to the upcoming Saturday’s.
“Everyone’s excited, it’ll be same at every club, for the first competitive game of the season. We’re all looking to see where we go and then the league starts a week after – it’s exciting.
“I’m happy with where we are, I think we’re in a good place and I’m hoping that can show on Saturday.
“It’s a tough game, on paper it might not look as tough but I don’t think you could’ve got a tougher at this stage. They’re a competitive team, we’ve experienced them before at my other clubs, we know what to expect in some way but they’ll be looking to come and create an upset.
“But we are not taking them lightly, we will get them the respect they deserve, that’s for sure, we’ve got to be professional in our job.
“It’s a nice competition to play in, everyone wants to be in it, it’s also nice to win and go further in it. If we get off to a good start, it can build optimism and push us on.”
