The Cottagers kick off their pre-season on Wednesday when they face A-League newcomers Gold Coast United.

And with their first competitive match coming in the Europa League third qualifying round at the end of the month, Johnson is glad to have a busy couple of weeks coming up.

"It's going to be hard," he told the club's official website. "We only came back on Wednesday so it will be difficult for us.

"We trained on Wednesday and Thursday then flew out here. It's a long flight and it's new to a lot of us - I hadn't flown for 24 hours before - and it takes a bit of time to acclimatise, so it's going to be a tough game.

"But we've got a good bunch of lads out here and a good squad so it's also a good opportunity for us to experiment.

"We've got three games in 14 days, so it's a tough schedule, but that's what we need because our first competitive game is on the 30th. We haven't got the time to have a week or two build up, so it's good for us now to get out there, get some sharpness back, and get some game practice against the teams out here."

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