Alan Irvine admits he has been putting his Preston North End players through the mill this week in a bid to recapture the form which produced the club's best start for more than 20 seasons.
Four defeats on the trot have prompted some serious self-examination on the training pitch.
And the North End boss has been 'revisiting' some of the basic work the squad did over the summer in the hope it will spark a revival.
"They have certainly had to work extremely hard," he said.
"I must admit I have been pretty strong with them. Training sessions have been really tough.
"I don't know how much they will have enjoyed the training, but hopefully they will have got an awful lot out of it.
"We have been getting back to quite a few basics to try to make sure we are difficult to beat once again.
"We were like that in August so there is absolutely no reason why we can't be like that again."
Irvine has been shocked by the way his side have slipped from being one of the meanest outfits in the Championship defensively to one of the most generous.
In the first six league matches Preston only conceded four goals – one of those was a penalty and another an own goal.
But in the last four the floodgates have opened with 10 goals being shipped in the defeats to Wolves, Burnley, Swansea and Watford.
Irvine said: "We took pride in that from January onwards, we were a team which was difficult to score against.
"But in the last four games it has been extremely disappointing to see so many goals go in.
"You cannot concede that many goals and win games. So we have been looking to address that.
"The fact that we have been able to defend well in the past tells you we should be able to defend well again.
"So we have really just been revisiting a lot of the work we have done in the past to make us solid again."
The defensive work has been top priority in the first week of the international break. But sharpening up in the opposition penalty box has also been high on the agenda.
Irvine revealed yesterday that his forward players had all been volunteering for extra sessions on finishing in an attempt to boost the team's strike rate.
Despite creating an average of more than 12 goal attempts a game, PNE have found the net just 12 times in 10 matches.
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