PHIL Parkinson was pleased his side kept up a 100 per cent start to pre-season after taking an experimental approach at Arbroath.

The Wanderers boss gave the likes of Harry Brockbank, Cole Lonsdale, Jack Earing, Connor Hall and Jeff King an hour at Gayfield Park before sending on some of his more experienced heads to see out a 2-1 win.

Adam Le Fondre’s penalty was quickly levelled up by another spot kick from home striker Steven Doris – but the game was won when Hall’s powerful run and cross was deflected into his own net by Tom O’Brien.

“It was a good work-out,” said Parkinson. “First half we’d pieced a side together with a slightly different shape – we played a diamond just to accommodate the players we wanted to give 60 minutes.

“The other lads got another 30 minutes and I don’t think we picked up any injuries, so that’s important.

“I was just pleased to get through it unscathed.”

Parkinson is keen to test out the younger scholars this week in Scotland to see whether they are ready to make the step up to senior level, or perhaps go out on loan.

“It’s a steep learning curve,” he said. “We probably brought more players than we would normally but we’d decided to do that just to get a look at them among the group and see how they’d cope.

“I wanted to put them out there in men’s football. A lot of them have played Under-23s football but this is a different game altogether, it’s physical against sides like Arbroath and Chorley.

“There were some good performances and I think as the week goes on they will be more comfortable in their surroundings.”