Paddy McCarthy has been through a lot of pre-seasons in his career, but none as organised as the one he has just endured at Crystal Palace.

The 28-year-old Eagles skipper says the preparation for the coming Championship season, which begins away at Peterborough United on Saturday, has been among the best he has ever had.

The 3-1 defeat to AFC Bournemouth last Saturday was Palace’s only friendly loss and McCarthy believes manager Dougie Freedman’s meticulous approach has rubbed off on the players and stands them in good stead for the new campaign.

“Pre-seasons are never easy, the lads always expect it to be difficult,” he said.

“But I will say this is the best organised pre-season I have ever had.

“Everybody knew what they were doing each day and we had a fantastic trip to Exeter and everything went well down there.

“There has not been any problem travelling around countries and going places where we don’t know where we are.

“We have had our days off but when we are training the gaffer makes sure you are on it 100 per cent and he expects that Monday to Friday.

“He works us very hard and he was like that as a player.

“He concentrated on his exercise and strength work and he is trying to get that across to the youngsters. They look up to him and take on board what he is saying.”

Palace spent the majority of last season in the Championship’s bottom three, something McCarthy, who is Palace’s only recognised central defender while Freedman weighs up a loan move for Stoke City’s Andrew Davies, is eager to avoid this time around.

“We obviously want to improve on last year,” he said.

“We spent a long time in the bottom three and so we want to improve on that and get as far up the table as we can.

“With the Championship you don’t know what can happen.

“We know it is going to be tough but you look at teams like Blackpool and Burnley in the past that have shown if you get momentum anything can happen.

“The gaffer has added a couple of strong players to the squad but we probably need a couple more.

“At the minute, it will probably be me playing centre half on my own on Saturday.

“At least I am guaranteed a game.”