PAUL Bowyer says the players’ work away from the group in the summer is playing a part in the form being shown by 1874 Northwich collectively now.

“Credit to the lads because fitness has been superb this season,” said Bowyer, who co-manages the team with Wayne Goodison.

“When we came back for pre-season every one of them came back and every one of them had done a lot in the off-season which gave us a head start.

“The fact we’ve got lads in the team that can put it in for 90 minutes at the level and tempo they play at is one of the big reasons why we’ve picked up some good results so far.

“We really trust the lads we’ve got here at the football club and most of them have been with us for a couple of seasons now.

“They know what we’re about and they’ve got much more used to how each other plays as well. Having a bit more of a settled side helps in playing the sort of football that we’ve wanted.”