City head coach Michael Skubala was pleased to see his team continue their strong form after defeating Notts County 3-0 in the Vertu Trophy on Tuesday night.
Goals from Sonny Bradley, Ben House and James Collins saw City to victory at the LNER Stadium, with Skubala hailing a professional performance from his side.
He said: “It was a very professional night. We managed to get some debutants in the team and they settled in well.
“It was a comfortable evening for us in the end and we managed to get some minutes into a number of players, so we’re really happy.
“When you look at the group we had out there, you can see how seriously we’re taking this competition.
“We want to win every game we play and keep our strong home form going. Winning is an important habit and we want to keep pushing.”
The game allowed Skubala the opportunity to hand some minutes to his deadline day recruits Adam Reach and Fin Barbrook and the boss was impressed with what he saw from his new signings.
He said: “Everyone saw Adam’s quality and decision-making on the ball. He’s a really clever player and a fantastic addition for us.
“He’ll add some really good competition to our team, especially with Ryley in that right-back position.
“We said 45 minutes for Reachy, but we wanted to push him to 60 because we wanted to get him firing and ready to go.
“We wanted to look at Fin and see how he could cover the ground and move across the pitch.
“At times it did that really well and you can see he has quality. He has a lot of potential and you can see how exciting he is.
“To get him through 90 is only really going to be good for him. You have to remember that these two only came into the building yesterday, so we’re pleased.”
The Imps brought in nine new recruits in the summer transfer window and the head coach says he’s excited by City’s strength in depth.
He added: “We have a really strong squad and it feels like we’ve got a lot of depth in every position.
“What excites me the most is the number of different profiles of players we have in different positions.
“They are all chomping at the bit to get started, we’ve got players on international duty too, which shows our growth.”
