ONE of the country's top sports nutritionists could be coming in to Oxford United to try to help them achieve better results on the pitch.

Manager Darren Patterson was interviewing Jon Williams last night in the hope of getting him involved at the club.

Patterson is looking to fine-tune United's players for the start of next season by bringing in a nutritionist and later, a conditioning coach.

He said yesterday: "I'm meeting Jon Williams tonight to discuss what he might be able to do for us.

"He's a leading sports nutritionist who has worked with some of our leading Premier League clubs and been involved with gold medal-winning athletes.

"It's more looking at pre-season and ways of improving our diet ahead of next season, but it's an important area."

With a professional degree in nutrition, Williams is at the top of his field and works with the Welsh Elite Rugby squad as well as Chelsea, Tottenham and Reading, providing nutritional advice.

He runs a national company with Olympic athlete Darren Campbell and all their recommended supplements are both registered and World Anti-Doping Agency tested at a WADA laboratory in Cambridge and approved.

Campbell won the silver medal in the 200m at the Sydney Olympics, and was also part of the gold medal-winning 4x100m sprint relay quartet.

Coventry Rugby Club brought Williams in once a month and he put properly constructed programmes in place, individually tailored to help players.

It's not suggested that Williams is a miracle-worker, but he did play a role in transforming Coventry's form, according to their owner, Andrew Green, and they went on a run of seven straight victories after he arrived.

Green was horrified to discover that his players were gorging themselves on doughnuts before matches - but that all changed when Williams joined the club.

"The players felt sluggish in the early stages of a game, which was no surprise," said Green.

"We decided to bring in John and it's no surprise that after two or three weeks, flanker John O'Connor scored a hat-trick of tries in the first 16 minutes against Sedgley Park.

"The difference in the way we have been starting games compared to the early season is there to be seen."

So if Williams is appointed at United, doughnuts are likely to be taken off the menu!

The conditioning coach will look at the players' stamina levels.