NATHAN Clarke is confident City can cut out the defensive lapses that have cost them in pre-season.

With only a week to go until the League One opener against Port Vale, Clarke and Nathaniel Knight-Percival are developing their partnership at the heart of the back four.

And the experienced centre half admits City must learn to be “braver and stronger” in dealing with set-pieces.

Both goals against St Johnstone came from dead-ball situations and Burnley centre half Ben Mee got above Knight-Percival to head in from a corner last week.

Clarke said: “It’s something that is very frustrating as defenders.

“You’re trying your best to stick with a man and we’ve just got to be braver and stronger.

“In previous games, we haven’t been the biggest of sides. But you’ve still got to stick your head in there.

“We’ve got to be strong and make sure your man doesn’t score. But pre-season is about trying to iron out those problems.

“You don’t want to be going into the league with these mistakes still happening. We’ll be working as hard as ever with the manager on the training pitch and with us as a back four and keeper.

“It’s all new faces and we’ve got to get that communication right.”

Rory McArdle is not due back in action for another month so Clarke and Knight-Percival are busy familiarising themselves with each other’s game.

He added: “You’ve got to build a partnership, not just in the games but in training as well. You want that rapport.

“It’s difficult when you’ve not played with each other before. You’ve got to pick it up pretty quickly.

“We’ve had a couple of games now and I hope we’re getting better as it goes on. We’re looking forward to the start of the season and hopefully we can iron out any issues.”

McCall is expected to name his strongest side for this afternoon’s final warm-up against Carlisle. The League Two opposition should provide a more comfortable test after Burnley demonstrated their Premier League class.

Clarke said: “It was tough but it was a good work-out. We were excited to play against a newly-promoted Premier League side and you’ve always got to test yourselves.

“The first half put a bit of a dampener on it when they scored in quick succession. But in patches we looked good.

“You can train for as many hours as you want but when you come up against teams like Burnley, you’re really getting tested in a different way mentally as well.”