Want more news from across Surrey? Sign up to our daily newsletter! Sign up for free Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Marcus Gayle wants his players to aspire to playing the likes of Wycombe one day in a league match after Staines Town's first week of pre-season matches was completed with a 4-0 home defeat by a classy Queens Park Rangers XI.

“I want the players to dream about that,” he declared after a Tom Hitchcock hat-trick and another goal for Michael Petrasso handed his team another valuable lesson.

“It was a humbling experience and it will make a few think they are not as good as they think they are but it will give them things they can work on to make themselves better all-round.”

QPR, who fielded only two established stars in Luke Young and Tal Ben-Haim – the first team squad being on a trip to Austria – looked slick and Gayle wants his players to improve their touch and decision-making.

And he knows that the creativity needs to be improved.

“We need to start sharpening up in terms of goal-scoring and our defending has to be improved,” he said.

“We have to understand how goals are scored. There are a million combinations of how you get that ball in the net.

"You have to find the right combination of players and a good relationship between the wide men and the forwards.

"The forwards have to be brave at entering the box and make the right runs and keep completing their drills. It's all these sorts of things that need to be worked on.”

Ashley Lodge was a standout performer in midfield for the Swans while Jordaan Brown was superb in a three-man defensive line and front pair Louis Theophanous and Oluwole Akinsanya linked up well.

"Seriously, I'm not worried about the size of the score against us," added Gayle. "It's about how we are performing. When we got into the game it was a good technical and physical challenge.

"The players enjoyed it too even though we don't like letting in goals, but we have to realise we are playing high-quality opposition yet again."

Staines were also beaten 3-0 by Wycombe Wanderers in a friendly last week.