THE Watford squad have their own mountain to climb in the forthcoming season as they look to bounce back to the Premiership at the first time of asking, but this morning (Friday) they had a more leisurely approach to reach the top.

The squad were given a meeting time of 7.00am by boss Aidy Boothroyd as the Yorkshire man had another surprise up his sleeve for the Hornets. Following a coach journey they arrived and made their way to the top of a German mountain in groups of four via cable cars.

Breakfast was waiting at the top for the touring party as they enjoyed the picturesque surroundings of the local countryside and lakes. The gaffer then gave a short speech to his players before they headed off to training at an earlier time than normal.

Conditioning coach Martyn Pert took the warm up as normal before a lively match using just under half the full sized pitch. The players were divided into three groups with those not playing positioned in strategic positions around the pitch where they were available for passes from either side.

It was a played at a high tempo and the players looked to be enjoying themselves with plenty of shouting and banter amongst the team.

Then Boothroyd himself took the next part with a game involving all the players using around half a full sized pitch. This concentrated on using the wings as much as possible and bringing the full backs into play - so there was plenty of overlapping for the likes for Jordan Stewart. Again this was played at a fast pace as the squad prepare for the tough test against Maccabi Haifa tomorrow afternoon, kick off is 4.00pm German time.

John-Joe O'Toole sat out the session with a sore leg but his injury isn't thought to be serious and he's expected to return to training soon.

Training continued in a lively manner before the players switched back to the original game and broke off into their three teams again. Then it was time for a good stretch before meeting the supporters who had made the journey to watch the open training session.

A match report of the game tomorrow (Saturday) will be available here at www.watfordfc.com

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