United midfielder Jonny Howson admits the club's pre-season tour to Slovakia has exceeded all expectations as Simon Grayson's squad prepare for their first game of the summer.

Jonny is on his fourth pre-season tour with the senior squad and says the club's trip into the relative unknown is proving to be a success.

The club's Aqua City base is just yards from FK Poprad, the club's training base, and with six new players in the squad, everyone is gelling in well in different surrounds.

"It's been better than I expected," said Jonny. 

"We must have had 400 people watching us train on Sunday and I've not seen anything like that before.

"It's a great turnout and just shows how big the club is and how many people know about Leeds United.

"We're being looked after really well here as well and there's a great spirit among everyone.

"The new lads have settled in great. They had a sing to introduce themselves the other night, and everyone is getting on great."

There's even been a nice mixture of smiles and tired faces on the training ground as the players have worked hard, both with and without the ball during training in hot conditions.

Monday morning saw an early morning swim session, before small-sided games on the training pitch became a full game involving all bar Paddy Kisnorbo.

The practice match was ideal preparation for Tuesday's opening game of the tour, against MFK Ruzomberok (5.30pm BST).

"You don't enjoy the running, but when you get the balls out you enjoy it a bit more," said Jonny.

"We did our first bit of shooting and crossing on Sunday and it's good to be getting back in the swing of things.

"You can't wait for the games to start when you come back, you want the friendlies to begin and get playing again.

"The more football you do the more undersatanding you get. It's pretty similar to how we started off last year, except maybe it's a better standard because we will be coming up against better players."

You can see more from Slovakia on LUTV...