Midfielder David Norris felt Town gave PSV too much respect in the opening stages of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at the Philips Stadion. The former Plymouth man skippered the Blues in the absence of regular captain Jon Walters, who has a virus.
Norris said: "I think we showed them a little too much respect early on and their quality really shone through, but we kept it to just the one, although it wasn’t a great goal to concede.
"After that, especially in the second half, I thought we really came into the game. We kept it a lot better ourselves and created one or two half-chances.
"It was tough, it was a good workout for us. A few of us got a full 90 minutes against really, really good quality opposition.
"They were full of quality all over the pitch and at times it was just a keep-ball session for them with us trying to chase it and get it back, but I thought second half it got a little bit better, we came into the game a little bit more and it was a good workout for us.”
Norris, who was "honoured” to captain the side, says the Blues should perform better this season having spent much of the last year together: "We’ve got pretty much the same squad and that could work in our favour because we’ve been together for a season now. We’re trying a new formation at the moment just to have something else in the locker so we’re not too predictable. It’s going well.
"We’re not going to over-promote this season and talk about this and that and what we’re going to do, all we’re going to focus on is those first few games, making sure we start a helluva lot better than we did last year, doing our talking on the pitch.”
The 29-year-old says the 4-3-3 system Town have so far used in pre-season might not necessarily be the way they line-up at Middlesbrough on the opening day but is a useful additional option: "I don’t think that’s the formation we’re definitely going to use, I think it’s just another one so we can change it about. We’ll work on that and with a little bit of tweaking here and there, because it is new to all the players, I don’t see why we can’t utilise that formation well.
"We’ve persevered with this system for three games now and it’s working out OK, so it’s another formation to stop us being a bit predictable.”
Norris was impressed to see more than 300 Town supporters in Holland: "It was an unbelievable turnout, I was surprised to see that many people there. We appreciate that, they spend their money and travel distances and I think it’s only right that we show our appreciation.”
Meanwhile, former Blue Jamie Clapham has completed his move to hometown club Lincoln City having been released by Notts County at the end of last season. The 34-year-old has signed a one-year deal.
Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk