Liverpool midfielder Jay Spearing is delighted with the first team action he's seen this preseason.

"Any time in the first team is good experience for me," he told liverpoolfc.tv. "When you go to places like Villarreal and get to play half a game that's only going to help me improve and I'm enjoying it at the moment.

"It's all about picking up experience and getting minutes on the pitch and hopefully I will be given a few more chances.

"The players around me are helping me because you have to pick up when you're playing with them.

"If you're playing with Xabi Alonso, Stevie G or Damien Plessis or whoever you know you have to raise your game and hopefully I'm doing that and showing the boss what I can do.

"Competition for places is part of the game and it's going to be the same if you're at any of the big four clubs so, like I said, I just have to step up my game and hopefully prove to the boss that I'm at least as good as any of the players he's bringing in.

"It is a challenge but that's what being at a club like Liverpool is all about."