BRIDPORT manager Rich Robson revealed that the Bees have developed a programme to minimise injuries when discussing the signing of striker Lewis Clarke, who has come off the back of an injury-hit season.

Robson also nodded towards the Bees’ injuries in the previous campaign and said that it is something that they are keen to work on.

He told the Bridport News: “Speaking to him (Clarke) he has rehabbed himself very well, and we have got a programme going, which is going to look after players and hopefully get rid of niggly injuries.

“It is something we were very eager to work on because obviously Bridport had a few injuries last season, with people like Hebbo (Richard Hebditch) being out so that is something that we wanted to try and minimise.

“So we have designed a program to look after the players and I think that was a little bit lucrative to him (Clarke) as well. But in terms of his footballing, when he is on the pitch and playing he is quality.

“He is going to be a sort of like for like replacement for (Mark) Salter.”

Robson admitted the programme was something they targeted prior to getting the job, and spoke of how sports science underpins everything he does.

Robson, when asked if it was something they aimed for prior to getting the job replied: “It was yeah, obviously I come from a background of academia so everything I do is based on sports science.

“Literally everything from training sessions to matchday I love my stats, I love all of that sort of thing, with academia underpinning everything. So we are going to be dipping into lots of things.

“It is something that we wanted to do as well because they did not train a lot last year either because they were drawing players down from all over the place, from Taunton and it is quite a distance away.”

“But this year I want to be training twice a week when we don’t have a midweek game, doing different things on the two different days.”

Referring back to the program, Robson added: “I think it is quite a special program, especially for the Western Prem (Toolstation Western Premier Division) I would be surprised if many other teams have the same sort of thing that we are doing.”

Robson also spoke of his desire to have ‘hungry’ players, and does not mind if players, after playing under him, progress on up the leagues from the club, saying that they are happy to be part of their journey.

He continued: “So we are trying to introduce lots of things around that, like videoing games etcetera etcetera, just to help the players because we want hungry players. I think every team does but we want hungry players who want to play a level higher.

“If they come to the Western League and have a good couple of seasons with us and then they get taken up to somewhere like Dorchester or wherever. That is good for us, we are happy to be part of people’s journey because then they will be part of our journey as well.”