Robbie Neilson, the Hearts head coach, is determined to continue to serve up a feast of goals for his club's supporters this season, although he has warned his players that they may not be around to enjoy it should they gorge themselves off the pitch.
The Tynecastle side host Dumbarton today having opened up a lead of nine points on Rangers, albeit the Ibrox side now have a game in hand.
The 34-year-old is satisfied that his players are hungry to succeed after suffering relegation last season and the coach will urge his side to show their appetite again this afternoon. Neilson has, however, introduced double training sessions during the week and has reminded his squad that they will be moved on quickly should they be unable to keep up.
Ronny Deila, the Celtic manager, infamously delivered a sermon on the need for Scottish footballers to submit to a healthier diet to improve their performances, banning chips and fizzy drinks at the Glasgow club. Neilson does not plan to introduce a set menu at Tynecastle, instead he has stated simply that any player with a poor diet will be easy to pick out during training.
"We'll have reviews with players about body fat and lifestyle and what we feel we need to work on," said the head coach, whose side dropped their only points of the season against today's opponents. "We're always in contact with them about what we want to do to try and improve them. We're not here to make life difficult for them, my job is to make them better players.
"We can give them the information, we can speak to them and do this, do that, but it's up to them to look after themselves, it's their career. It's their life and their ambition to play; if you want to do it, they'll do it. If they don't, they won't be here for long.
"It's up to them, players have a responsibility now to look after themselves, we can't be with them 24 hours a day. Most of the time they're here from 9 [o'clock in the morning] until maybe three, four o'clock and after that they can do what they want. I've not banned anything, it's up to them."
Ian Murray hopes his Dumbarton side are able to starve their hosts this afternoon, having watched his part-time players keep a clean sheet at home to Hearts last month. "We held them to a no-scoring draw at our place last month and although Hearts had the majority of possession we defended very well," said the Dumbarton manager, whose side have kept clean sheets in their last two matches.
"Overall, our performances since the start of September have been absolutely excellent. We are on a good run and our defensive unit has been superb."
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