Hibernian head coach David Gray put his players through gruelling triple-session days during the club's summer training camp in the Netherlands - but insisted fitness, or lack thereof, hadn't necessarily played an issue in the team's struggles last season under Nick Montgomery. 

The Easter Road side gave up a number of late goals as they limped to an eighth-place finish after initially looking a good bet for a top-six berth, and Gray is keen to ensure Hibs not only tighten up at the back, but can run and run for 90-plus minutes each week.

"Not necessarily; the numbers were always good last season," he said, when asked if fitness had played a part in the habit of conceding late goals. 

“Our job as coaches is to make them as fit and strong as possible and work them from the point of view of being technical, tactical, physical, and the mental side is really important too. We try to improve them in every area. 

“The fitness side is not just about making the players as fit as we can, it’s about ensuring they’re as robust as possible as well, to boost injury prevention, and the mental side of things to work out what hard work actually feels like. If they can feel that in pre-season and come through it in a stronger, fitter state of mind then when they go into games they should have the confidence and belief to know that they can go for 90, 100 minutes - the game does stretch on a bit now so you need to be prepared for that."

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Asked to elaborate, Gray avoided landing on one factor but admitted there had been a psychological element to the recurring problem. 

“I think it’s a mindset, but I think it can be a number of things. That’s not to say what we did last season was wrong in certain situations - we’re not pointing the finger at a single factor. 

“As a group, we need to be better defensively. The mindset going into the last 10-15 minutes needs to be better, or rather recognition of what’s required in the game needs to be better: is it a substitution, or something else? It’s up to me and the coaching team to identify that to help the players.

“The mentality of the group needs to be stronger to have that ruthlessness to ensure we defend the goal with our lives, especially late on in games or, the flip side to that is if we’re pushing for goals in the game to make sure we’re doing it right to the very end. What we’re trying to do is have that fitness in the bank and a way of working, as well as a ruthlessness to try to ensure we’re better defensively and mentally."