Lee Novak labelled City's pre-season trip to Sky Bet Championship side Huddersfield Town “a good workout”.
Dylan Mottley-Henry opened the scoring early on, though goals from Karlan Grant and Matthew Daly saw the hosts take a 2-1 victory - with eight of Stuart McCall's men completing the full game.
The former Terrier admitted he was left fatigued towards the closing stages, however felt satisfied with his first 90 minutes since March.
Novak stated: “It was a good workout. Obviously, it was a disappointing result, but it was good to get 90 minutes into the legs, because we have not done that for quite some time.
“I did feel a bit tired towards the final 10 to 15 minutes of the game - which is understandable having not played in so long - but we knew it was going to be testing for us, especially when Huddersfield brought on a fresh 11 at half-time.
“Looking back, there were some moments in the game where we could have played better.
“But, in parts, I thought we did well and we just have to take those positives, keep going and move on towards Saturday.”
The experienced forward has now featured in all of City's pre-season outings so far and, despite the West Yorkshire derby defeat, remains hopeful of a promising start to the 2020/21 season.
Novak was keen to stress how he and his team-mates know what manager McCall requires from his players.
He added: “Stuart has made it clear from day one how he wants us to play.
“Since we have come back into training, he has made it apparent that he wants us to play on the front foot, and I thought we were - especially in the first-half, against good opposition.
“Results are not of much significance at this stage. Obviously, we would have liked to have got a win against opposition such as Huddersfield.
“However, we move on. I am sure a few more lads will be playing 90 minutes again before the start of the season and hopefully, when the time comes, we can get off to a very positive start.”