THE rise to the top of the Hellenic League Premier has seen Worcester City win nine league games in a row, closing in on the record of 12 set back in 1976/77.

City are flying-high and blowing teams away with their attacking prowess, but there is something significant behind their success.

This season, manager Chris Cornes has ramped up the use of fitness trackers to analyse players' individual performance during matches.

"I got the fitness trackers whilst at Bewdley and it's something I have used for a while," said Cornes.

"You can view high-intensity moments, mileage, intensity runs and for the club it's a string to our bow and it's something we can use to analyse players and keep an eye on them all individually.

"If you have two wingers and one is doing two more miles per game than the other, you're asking questions why and it's something players can't hide behind, it's black and white.

"But the players are all behind it and they use it to have their own discussions about who is the fittest, who is the fastest."

Whatever methods Cornes has been using so far in this campaign, it has worked wonders for his City side on the pitch.

But Cornes admitted the use of fitness trackers was also a method to help the development of himself and his coaching team.

"And as a management group, it is something to make ourselves better; we want to move with the times and we want to improve as coaches," he added.

"It's not an expensive thing but it is something that clubs at this level might not have access to but it's something we have wanted to do more of and something we enjoy doing.

"If lads haven't worked hard enough, I can pick it out easily and can point players out for it."