YOU may remember from yesterday’s diary that I was woken by the shrieking sound of my alarm.

It was a similar story this morning…but not when it should have done!

I had set the darned thing for 6.30am so I could catch the Wolves boys on their morning swim, but when I finally opened my eyes, it was 7.15 and the alarm had been going off for the best part of an hour!

By the time I shaped myself, the lads were arriving back for breakfast. I got to the meal room and was greeted with shouts of “where the hell were you?” from Chris Hill!

After their escapades in the pool, the lads enjoyed a morning off so I took the time to catch up with Tony Smith. I cannot remember seeing him this enthusiastic in an interview for a long time, so pleased is he by the work being done by his troops.

I also got the chance to sit down with Jack Hughes and Dom Crosby, who requested that I call them “The Bash Brothers” (if you’re reading this lads, I told you I’d sort it!) Best of friends they truly are and it made for a hilarious segment, the results of which you will be able to see in the coming weeks.

For the rest of the morning, it was all about finishing work and getting as much as I could typed up before heading up to T3 for a long afternoon.

The weather was set fair, so I decided to walk up to the pitch. It didn’t take long, only about 15 minutes, but it does sit atop a rather large hill which proved a little problematic!

I found the kickers undergoing some drills. Dec Patton, Morgan Smith and Harvey Livett were on goalkicking duty, Gids on dropouts and Kev Brown kicked from hand under the close watch of Tony.

The group split after that, with Jon Clarke taking half to the gym while the other half did some attack v defence drills with Rich Agar and Lee Briers.

Particular emphasis was put on passing the ball at close quarters and offloading, all skills that are crucial to any side in the modern game.

The tackle bags then came out for some more offloading drills before it was time for the dreaded full contact session.

For some of the lads who had post-season operations, it will have been the first time they will have taken full contact for some months but, to their eternal credit, nobody held anything back.

When I sit in the press box at games, you can hear the hits from that far away but when you’re stood right next to them, the thud really does go right through you!

While most of the players went off for a revitalising dip in the sea, Tommy Lineham and Bennie Westwood stayed behind to have a bit of a penalty shootout with Stuart Pearce.

After going through his career being remembered by many for his penalty miss in the 1990 World Cup semi-final shootout against Germany, you’ve got to hand it to Stuart for taking part!

Rich and Lee were in attendance as well as everyone took turns at shooting and goalkeeping, a really light-hearted affair!

After a bit of something to eat, I managed to sit down with Dec, Harvey and Andre Savelio to chat about their days at Cardinal Newman High School.

Dec and Andre were in the same form, as it turned out, and it made for a great chat about their high school hijinx!

And so, as the players headed back to their rooms, it was time for me to do the same and get my bag packed for the flight home tomorrow.

The lads are swimming early tomorrow so look out for pictures of that (I will NOT sleep through this time!) and my final Tenerife Diaries entry will come tomorrow evening when I get home.