Burton Albion midfielder Matty Lund reckons Saturday's Championship season-opener against Cardiff City will provide the Brewers with a tough test to start the season.
Lund also admitted that it was hard to see Albion's record-signing - and Lund's Northern Ireland team-mate - Liam Boyce suffer a serious injury in last weekend's defeat to Shrewsbury Town.
The 26-year-old has been in fine form for Albion since penning a two-year deal with Nigel Clough's team at the beginning of the summer, notching three goals in pre-season from a variety of positions.
Tasked with playing a variety of positions over the course of pre-season, Lund has operated at right-back, right-wing and the more familiar position of centre-midfield this summer.
Lund did well to neutralise the threat of Leicester City pair Ben Chilwell and Ahmed Musa in Tuesday night’s 2-1 defeat of the Foxes - in which the Brewers rounded off their pre-season with a win that is sure to send Albion into Saturday's game in good spirits.
Together with Captain John Mousinho, the duo proved to be quite the double act, with good play from Lund giving Lucas Akins the opportunity to swing in an inch-perfect cross to Hope Akpan, who opened the scoring for the Brewers on Tuesday.
But the Northern Ireland international is under no illusions as to how tough the Championship is going to be this season - with that victory over the Foxes quickly put to one side.
It will be Lund's first taste of second-tier football following a relatively successful four-year spell with Rochdale before his Spotland departure this summer.
He knows it will be tough - with the more teams than ever battling for promotion to the promised Land of the Premier League - but is in the mood to prove those wrong who have already tipped Albion for relegation, just as they did last term.
"It'll be a very tough game," Lund said matter-of-factly at Wednesday morning's press conference.
"There’ll be no easy games, I can imagine.
"But we've just got to prove people wrong again, and show that we can beat the big teams.
"I think a lot of teams now are saying promotion's their aim.
"We've just got to keep pulling together and pick up the right results at the right times."
Lund also spared a thought for his colleague at club and international level, Boyce, but insisted that Albion have to work as a team and not just rely on one player to carry them.
"It's hard to see Boycey come back with that news, but listen, we’ve got to pull together as a team and show that not just one person's going to score us goals.
"It's (the impact) going to be throughout the team and obviously it's a big miss.
"Boycey’s a good lad, a good player and I'm just gutted for him really.
"But obviously we've got a big few games coming up and we've got to show that we're together as a team and if we do that, we'll be fine."
