Th recent rise up the Championship league table is down to hard work on the training field according to 'City boss Chris Coleman. He claims his players have responded well to the new training regime, even if they don't like it too much.
The new regime has sen the squad doing shuttle runs, sprinting and playing fast tempo practise games with a no holds barred attitude.
Chris Coleman said of the players and their training, “There is a good edge about them. There was a little bit of debating among them this week, shall we say, which is good. "
"The standards in training have risen and you have to keep pushing the envelope, so when we have the games, which are nine v nine, they are tighter and harder, and the standard is better, because it is March and the sun’s coming out it is a dangerous month because some people can start to think, ‘phew, two more months to go before the end of the season,’ but in the position we are in if there is any of that thinking we have got to get them as far away from the group as we possibly can."
“The group we have got at the minute is saying, ‘right, who’s next, where are we getting the next three points and can we stay there and go again,’ and that’s all that matters to us. The summer holidays are miles away for us because we are right in the middle of a situation where we are thinking what can we make of it?"
"We have got to make the best of it and not let it slip away. As for the intensive fitness sessions, he admitted: “We had one or two moans about the running and work last week but they were perhaps one or two of the more senior players who felt we were maybe doing a bit much because we have had a lot of games."
“We have got another huge game on Saturday so they had a hard day on Tuesday when we pushed them because we know we will be pushed to the limit again against Plymouth and we have to make sure we have got the answers like we have had the answers in recent weeks.”