Town coach Tony Mowbray has said the squad is fitter than ever as they continue pre-season training at the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook. Mowbray said that pre-season had moved on a lot since the early days of his career.

Mogga has been reminiscing with Dale Roberts: "Dale and I were talking and remembering that 20 years ago we would be coming back from our summer break and there were players over two stone overweight. On the runs we would have to stop after ten minutes or so and walk or they would be ill. Nowadays you watch these players and they are super athletes."

Fitness was one of the keys to Town's success last season and it is something that the club are clearly taking very seriously. Simon Thadani was taken on full-time as fitness coach last year and each player was given their own individual plan to follow over the summer.

Town's Academy sides are to take part in an experiment aimed at reducing the number of bad offside decisions. The U17s and U16s are playing in a tournament at Keele University where the Norwegian Reference Point System will be trialed.

The Reference Point System, or RPS, sees a number of prismed lights arranged at 1.2 metre gaps along the touchline. These can only be seen by the linesman when he is standing directly opposite. In Norwegian trials there was a 50% reduction in bad decisions.

Later trials will be taking place at Charlton's training ground during the new season. The FA's Head of Referessing John Baker said: "The system will help the assistant referee be absolutely sure he has a perpendicular view across the field. Obviously the further away from the cirrect alignment an assistant is the more likely he is to make a mistake in judging offside."

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