Timm Klose admitted he had an extra special reason to finish Norwich City's German tour on a positive note in a 1-1 draw against his old club VfL Wolfsburg.
Klose picked up a booking in Barsinghausen, to underline his commitment and the competitive nature of the pre-season tussle against Bundesliga opponents.
The experienced Switzerland international, however, warned team-mates old and new it will take that on a regular basis to improve on a mid-table Championship finish.
'It was against my ex-club and of course I didn't want to lose so in the dressing room I was pushing the lads to give their maximum,' he said.
'We showed we have some quality players but that has to be the case every time we go on the pitch.
'That has to be the standard. You can't just show it against better sides, we have to show it against 23 teams in the Championship. I got booked and I didn't want to concede a goal. It was a yellow card but that is the spirit you need.
'Especially as captain you have to go forward.
'We did a great job because the boys were very tired but we showed a lot of spirit. It is always nice to see some old faces.
' had a great time together. Some boys are with the Swiss national team as well. We won a few things and that will stick with me for the rest of my career.'
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Klose feels he has grown into a leadership role within Daniel Farke's Norwich set-up.
'I am still hungry. I am now 30 and that is sad for me to have a '3' in the front. But seriously I want to keep pushing myself and pushing the younger lads,' he said. 'You have to be harsh on them at times.
'I got treated like that when I was a younger player. It can't all be about happiness and joy. Sometimes you have to have those tough discussions to get to the next level.
'I am not normally the guy to shout at players but if I do it then they know it is necessary.
'For the new lads it is very important to get into our group. I was talking about the boat last year and some fell out of it.
'Some new boys came in and we need to 'keep them all together and this training camp has made us stronger.
'If we work for each other, and we know there will be some obstacles, but if we stick together we can jump over them and push them aside.'
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