SUCCESS ALD' DOWN TO GYM

Ireland and Liverpool legend on fitness regime

- MARK McCADDEN

IRELAND legend John Aldridge has revealed that he was way ahead of his time when it came to strength and conditioning.

And he reckons the time he spent in the gym helped make him one of the most feared strikers in the game in an era when he scored prolifically in the English and Spanish top flights.

Aldridge was a fan favourite at Liverpool and Real Sociedad thanks to his goalscoring heroics.

And he puts that down, in part, to a decision he made when he started out as a teen with Newport County, where he spent five seasons between the old Fourth and Third Divisions, now known as League Two and League One.

Then he moved on to Oxford United, where his 90 goals in less than 150 appearances caught the eye of his boyhood heroes Liverpool.

By the time he moved to Anfield during the 1986/87 campaign, he was years into a training regime that was alien to most footballers at the time.

"I've always been into the weights," Aldo told Fitter Happier. "I've been doing them since I was 18. It makes you feel better.