United boss Garry Monk has confirmed that this weekend’s pre-season friendly double-header will see his players start to bank their first 90 minutes of the summer.

Monk’s side visit local outfit Guiseley AFC on Friday evening (7.45pm kick-off), before travelling south to face League One club Peterborough United on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off).

Monk, who will take charge of both fixtures, plans to field “two mixed teams” over the course of the weekend and insists neither starting line-up will be an indication of what he believes to be his strongest XI, with the head coach preferring to focus on “partnerships and different combinations”.

United’s pre-season campaign got underway last week with back-to-back victories away to Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers, and Monk is now looking to build on a productive fortnight at the team’s pre-season training camp in Ireland as he prepares for his first UK-based friendlies of the summer.

“We had a really good two weeks over there with the group and we got through a lot of work,” he said.

“We’re now back in England and we’ve got more games coming up this weekend, so it was back to work at the start of the week and looking towards the games ahead.

“We split the teams mostly 60/30 in terms of minutes over in Ireland and then we swapped it around for the second game.

“Over here we’re looking to get all of the players 90 minutes – that’s the most important thing from the physical side of it. It will be good for them to get 90 minutes under their belt.

“It’s a lot of travelling for the staff but it’s important as they’re two first-team games - I'll be at both of them.

“I want to look at all of the players. There are things that we’re working on that I want to see in these two games.

“There are a few things that I’m trying to see what the players are capable of, and that’s important at this stage of pre-season.

“I’ve used this period to really understand who can play in what roles. That’s still the case in terms of these two games – we’re looking at partnerships and different combinations.

“That allows us to see what we can have or what players can do if used in a number of roles. I need to know that as a manager and I need to see that in the squad.

“It will be two mixed teams for these two games. There are ideas behind it, which I’ll keep to myself, but the most important part is that they get 90 minutes under their belt.”

LUTV will be providing coverage of both of this weekend's pre-season friendly fixtures, with full match commentary from Guiseley on Friday evening followed by a live stream to watch Saturday's game at Peterborough. Click here to subscribe now from just £1 per week!