The newest member of Oxford United’s coaching staff has set his sights on making the squad the “fittest, fastest and strongest” in the division.
Alasdair Lane has been brought in this summer as United’s full-time strength and conditioning coach to improve fitness and reduce the rate of injuries.
As well as overhauling areas such as nutrition, each player is now tested with a variety of methods, including using heart rate monitors during training sessions.
Lane was part of the coaching staff when Brentford won the npower League Two title in 2008/09.
The 39-year-old is looking to replicate the impact made at Griffin Park and promises U’s supporters they will notice a difference.
He said: “From a fan’s point of view, they’ll see the lads will be fitter.
“They’ll look leaner and stronger and that’s what we want to put out there – we want people to know we’re the fittest, the fastest and the strongest in League Two.
“We did it at Brentford, we kept saying ‘you’re the fittest, the fastest and the strongest’ and every time we played they looked it.
“They started to believe it and other teams started to believe it, so there’s a psychological wall there as well. It’ll happen.”
He added: “The similarities (with Brentford) are incredible.
“Manager Andy Scott brought me in and said he just wanted them to be the fittest and we did it – there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”
The new regime has meant the players have had to take on a lot of new information and adapt to different training techniques.
But Lane has been encouraged by the response.  He said: “Every single player has bought into it.
“I think one of the reasons is it’s not rocket science, if you go to virtually any competitive sport – people like UK Athletics – they’ve got these things put in place.
“Why? Because it works, there’s thousands of studies to back a lot of this st.uff up. It’s very simplified, but my principle is you do the basics better than anybody else.
“Now we have the heart rate data I can download it and explain to each player what I’m looking for.
“It’s very simple, the lads understand it and there isn’t one of them who hasn’t come to me and asked how they can get fitter.”