Queen of the South manager Marvin Bartley is seeing improvements in his squad already.
And he’s hoping the hard work on the training pitch translates into Saturday’s game at Peterhead.
The Doonhamers were game free at the weekend after being knocked out of the Scottish Cup but it allowed the rookie boss to work on things with his players.
He said: “There are improvements, definitely. The boys are getting used to the way I want them to work. It has been a change for them as every manager is different. From the first session to the one we had yesterday, I can see clear improvements.”
He added: “We trained hard and smart and implemented some things that we want to be part of our DNA going forward.
“For me it’s getting specific fitness and I believe we’re getting to that into them now.
“Obviously, it’s not going to be a massive turnaround in two weeks but we’re definitely seeing improvements on the training pitch. We’ll see them on Saturday, there’s no doubt about that.”
Queens travel to League One strugglers Peterhead as they look to build an 18-point gap on the ninth-placed side and cut them further adrift.
Marvin said: “They won their last game.
“They are in a dogfight at the bottom. They’ll be high working and had a high turnover of players.
“It’s been very difficult to analyse them because they are bringing in players by the day because their manager needs to do so. I expect a real tough game, they are probably in a false position.
“We won’t take them lightly, we’ll respect them. We know their strengths and work on nullifying them and exposing their weaknesses.”
The manager is hoping improved fitness will bear fruit this weekend and for the rest of the season.
He added: “I spoke about intensity in training and that needs to go into matches.
“We’re a full-time team and we need to show the difference between full-time and part-time fitness. That’s of massive importance. It’s about what you do on the ball. We’ll press harder when we don’t have it then it’s about cool heads when you do have the ball.
