City head coach Mark Kennedy said he was delighted Tuesday’s fixture against Grimsby from a fitness perspective.
As the opening day of the season draws closer, Kennedy was satisfied with the distribution of minutes across the squad as preparations continue for July 30.
He said: “We wanted to give some players more minutes because when it comes to crunch time, we need players who can play 90 minutes and we achieved that.
“Physically the lads put in an unbelievable shift, and I think that told in the end when from our perspective, it became a little ragged; but that is a by-product of the work put into the match so from a workout point of view, it was a very good night for us.”
Just one fixture remains in City’s pre-season calendar as the Imps take on EFL Championship side Blackburn Rovers at the LNER Stadium on Saturday July 23.
He added: “The biggest thing I want to take away from the fixture is implementation and seeing what we’ve worked on being demonstrated on Saturday.”
“I’ve seen plenty of it over the course of pre-season and we’re certainly building towards where we want to get to, and I’m pleased with that.
“There will be a realism to the game with it being in front of our own fans, so besides fitness I’d like to see a continuation of what we’ve looked for over the course of pre-season, and an implementation of what we’ve worked on from the training pitch.”