Avenue boss John Deacey feels today’s non-league players are far fitter than their counterparts of yesteryear and points to this dreadful winter as evidence of his claim.

In years gone, players on the fringe of the professional game would tuck in to pie and chips before a game, while many would quench their post-match thirst with several foaming mugs of ale.

These days there is more dietary science applied and individuals showing a healthier attitude towards daily life. Deacey and assistant Vince Brockie worked the players as hard as they could during the big freeze but the circumstances were problematic.

Deacey said: “It was a complete nightmare. We were able to use the facilities at Bradford University around Christmas, so we did get some outdoor sessions in, but the first few weeks of January we were stuck with indoor training.

“We have the La Liga Soccer Centre that we can always use, which is great, but that is an artificial surface. We have also been keeping things fresh with the visits to the boxing gym for some fitness work.”

The hard work put in seemed to have paid off because Avenue returned to action last weekend with a 3-1 win at Matlock Town. Three members of the board separately commented that they were impressed by the players’ level of fitness in that game after waiting six weeks to play.

Deacey said: “You have to rely on the lads to some extent to look after themselves when training is disrupted like it was during the bad weather. The last thing you need is for them to take two or three games to get back into it.

“To be fair, the lads do that these days. When they couldn’t join up with the rest of the lads because travelling was virtually impossible, they all went jogging and exercised either at home or their local gym.

“They do that nowadays and they eat well and hardly touch alcohol – they have to if they want to be able to keep playing at this level. It was different in the old days but now all the Football League boys are in better shape as well.

“The players have come through that lay-off period now and I’m glad they have not lost too much sharpness. It is going to be a very frantic finish this year and we will find ourselves playing every midweek.

“We have 20 or 21 games left in the space of 12 weeks. The thing that worries me is that we are still in January, so we are not through the bad weather situation yet. We are still likely to have a couple of games called off.”