AFC Bournemouth
Brennan Camp has enjoyed one of the most rewarding pre-seasons of his career - and in recent days topped it off with an appearance against Champions League winners Chelsea.
The 20-year-old played 33 times for Weymouth in the National League in 2020/21 but was tasked with going toe-to-toe among the Cherries first team squad ahead of the upcoming campaign.
After a gruelling ten-day training camp in Marbella, in which he earned minutes in both friendlies, Camp was given a further chance to impress in the match with Chelsea in front of fans at Vitality Stadium on Tuesday.
"It was one of the best nights in my career so far," said the defender of his time playing against esteemed opposition. "I had all my family at the stadium watching and that was great.
"Actually, coming on when I did was a bit of a shock, Jack Stacey went down and I was on straight away. That kind of helped, it was good to get 20 minutes or so and when I went on I noticed the step up in intensity immediately.
"After the first few touches I settled and really enjoyed it.
"Pre-season has been good, probably one of the best ones for me and one of the toughest as well.
"Going to Spain with the first team was enjoyable, we had lots of running, lots of work, there was a lot of graft every day and not many rest days either.
"It's been tough on the legs but I think all of us feel really good in ourselves both physically and mentally so hopefully we can carry on, show what we're about and get more chances in the first team."
Opportunities for the younger players has been a theme across the Cherries' pre-season friendlies, head coach Scott Parker and his coaching staff giving academy graduates a platform to perform on.
Camp told afcb.co.uk that he's enjoyed getting to know the new staff: "All of the coaches are approachable and really nice to speak with.
"The philosophy that the head coach has come in and implemented has been good for us. In the training sessions the quality's been really high so now I'm looking forward to training more under him.
"I've really enjoyed it so far."
When not in the first team setup, the centre-back has also been in action from the under-21s, who on Wednesday took on Fulham in a 3-1 friendly defeat at Canford Arena.
A senior player in the more junior team, Camp captained the side, making the most of the experience despite the disappointing result.
"I loved it, I had a bit of experience with captaining in the under-18s for two years, it was nice to put the armband back on and I felt like I did a good job leading the team.
After the defeat it's up to us to prove ourselves again in our next game.
"It was good for all of us boys to get 90 minutes under our belts, for some of us we've had some time with the first time this pre-season so it's nice now to get the 90 minutes.
"The team was a bit disjointed today but everyone knows it needs to be better in the next game and I'm sure it will be.
"It's good to get the games into the legs and hopefully that puts us in good stead for the rest of the season.
"We've got quite a few games now coming up to put it right and I think we're all desperate to get into the next game and show what we can do as a team."
