Having graduated from the University of Leeds, persistence and hard work proved to be the key ingredients that have helped elevate Michael Rawson to his current role as Strength and Conditioning Coach.

With a foot firmly in the Wanderers door following his graduation, Rawson impressed and was offered the chance to come on board since which he has gone from strength-to-strength.

Rawson is now responsible for putting the first team players through their paces and can often be seen on pitches around the league helping the squad through both their warm-up and cool-down routines.

He explained: "I did a sports science degree at the University of Leeds, and as soon as I graduated to wrote to every football club in the football league asking if I could come down and observe how fitness coaches and sports scientists work in football.

"Luckily for me the club doctor at the time allowed me to come in one day a week for a couple months to shadow Mark Hulse, who was the fitness coach at the time. That soon turned into a full-time intership after one of the current students that they previously had decided that it just wasn't for him.

"At the end of that season, I received a call from the assistant manager saying that they were no longer going to use students and they had created a full time assistant fitness coach position that they wanted me to fill. Obviously it was a dream come true and I was very happy to accept.

"I did that role working under Ade Stovell mainly with the development squad until December 2010, when I was promoted to the first team as Strength and Conditioning coach when Ade left the club.

"In the morning I attend a daily medical meeting at 8.15am until 8.45am where we discuss the plan of the day. It normally revolves around the injured players and which coach is going to take which session. I also fitness test every player before they return to training which consists of jump, speed, agility and endurance tests.

"I provide a daily warm-up at the start of each training session and provide any speed, fitness or strength work that the players require. I also provide the players and coaches with heart rate analysis for each player for each session. This information tells us how hard an individual player has worked and how hard the session has been overall, so it's a great tool for planning and reflecting on a specific training week.

"We do body fat testing, hydration testing and things like ice baths after each game. Nine degrees doesn't sound cold but try telling me that when you've been sat in there for six minutes!"