Pearson felt Slovenia camp was a ‘great week’ for the Hatters

The centre half was one of Town’s squad put through their paces by new manager Graeme Jones and the rest of Town’s backroom staff for five days before Saturday’s pre-season clash with Bedford Town.

It was a hugely worthwhile experience for Pearson too, as he said: “We were up at seven o’clock on the bikes, doing bike rides up mountains and in for breakfast, a training session then maybe a gym session or another training session in the afternoon.

“It’s all there, it’s all to benefit us, it is hard work, but you expect to get fit and I think most of the lads are fitter.

“It’s a great set-up, they’ve got an outdoor gym, and it gives you that time away to just fully focus on your football.

“That’s what we’ve done and it’s been a great week for us.”

Town took their work into the game at the Eyrie on Saturday as they should have led by a hatful at half time.

Pearson himself missed a number of chances from Andre Shinnie’s penetrating corners, while George Moncur fired against the bar, with home keeper Alex Bennion in fine form too.

Pearson continued: “They sat back and made it difficult, but it’s all in the bank, fair play to them, they took the game to us and made it difficult for us to score.

“I should have scored, that’s the disappointing bit.

“It’s a good job the game means nothing, but you want to be putting those chances away.

“You see all the chances, I think that’s something we have to work on.

“We had probably the same chances each half and only scored two goals.

"We need to be scoring at least for me, first half, we needed to get two or three goals and then second half exactly the same.

“If you’re looking at it, we should have won the game by more, but fair play to them, they stuck at it and made it difficult.”

Moncur did eventually put one of them away, with Jake Jervis scoring late in the second period too, but Eagles hit back within 60 seconds to halve the deficit.

That clearly rankled with Pearson who said: “As a defender that’s what you play for.

“You play for those clean sheets, and it’s the worse feeling when you concede so late on, it’s just disappointing.”

Pearson was one of three players – alongside Lloyd Jones and Josh Neufville – to get 90 minutes on the day.

He said: “Most of the lads were scheduled for 45, but we had a few little niggles, Sonny (Bradley), Pottsy (Dan Potts), injured, so it set a few of us up for 90s.

“Then at half time, Corey’s (Panter) done his hamstring, so I ended up playing 90, but it doesn’t bother me, it’s all in the tank and it’s only going to benefit me.

“We’ve called on a few younger lads and this is their chance. Sam (Beckwith) has taken his chance there.

“He’s come on for 15, 20 minutes and he got a mention from the assistant, so fair play to him, it’s a great opportunity.”