Gardner hoping fitness will be the key to success

It’s much harder graft this season under Frankie Bunn, but higher fitness levels will hopefully lead to better end results for Athletic midfielder Dan Gardner.

Fans’ favourite Gardner (28) made 49 appearances for Athletic last season, but already he has noticed a marked difference in the training regime since Frankie Bunn came in as manager in June to replace Richie Wellens.

Gardner said: “The training is very, very good, but very hard. It’s full on.

“The gaffer wants you to be fit and he gets his point across well.

“He does a lot in training - shape and stuff like that.

“It’s very hard but obviously it’ll stand us in good stead being fit - being fitter than everyone else.

“I thought it showed on Saturday – all their lads were cramping up after 65, 70 minutes, and we were just kicking on trying to find that goal, but unfortunately we couldn’t.

“If we had a bit more going forward we would’ve been alright, but we were fitter and stronger so hopefully we can run all over teams this season.”

Gardner and his team-mates will get their second chance to try and gain a positive result in League Two tomorrow when they head to Forest Green Rovers.

It will be the first time the two teams have ever met in a competitive fixture as Rovers only joined the Football League last season – finishing in 21st in the table by the end of it.

However, Gardner knows plenty about what Athletic will be up against at The New Lawn.

He said: “I’ve known a lot about them for quite a few years.

“I played against them for Hailfax when we were in the Conference, and they’re a decent team.

“It’s going to be another hard game - like every game in this league is - but we’ll go there looking to get the win.

“We’ve been working on them in training so hopefully we can stop what they do and do what we do which is press them, score goals and stop them from scoring.”

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