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Kuqi and Co. can make dream a reality
Reporter: MATTHEW CHAMBERS
Date online: 18 January 2012
Manager backs his hit men to put Wembley in reach
ATHLETIC refocus their sights on the visit to Chesterfield tonight, with manager Paul Dickov backing his attacking players to breach a newly-strengthened home defence.
Ex-Stockport defender Josh Thompson, who had a spell on loan at Rochdale last term, has signed for John Sheridan's men on a season-long loan from Celtic and is set to come straight into the line-up for this first leg of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy northern final.
The tie is set to take place tonight (7.45pm kick-off) after yesterday falling foul to a frozen pitch.
"We want to go there and put ourselves in a good position to come back here to Boundary Park," said Dickov, who welcomes back on-loan Robbie Simpson after the striker missed out at Huddersfield due to not being eligible to play against his parent club.
"It is a first for me, a two-legged tie, but we will set up the same way looking to win the game.
"We have players in the team who can score goals — Shefki (Kuqi), Robbie (Simpson), Filipe Morais, Chris Taylor, Josh Parker, Luca (Scapuzzi).
"There are options and Matt Smith did ever so well the last time we went there."
Bottom-of-the-table Chesterfield are struggling in npower League One, without a win since a 4-1 defeat of Carlisle in mid-September and seven points behind the safety zone.
Spireites manager Sheridan and his assistant Tommy Wright tonight pit their wits against their former club in a bid to lift the mood at the B2net Stadium.
"If you've got a chance to get to Wembley I don't think it's a game getting in the way," Wright told BBC Radio Sheffield.
"You don't get a chance to play in a cup final at Wembley very often."
The second-leg tie between the clubs, who are battling for the right to meet either Barnet or Swindon at Wembley on Sunday, March 25, takes place at Boundary Park on Monday, January 30.
Athletic (probable): Cisak; Adeyemi, Mvoto, Diamond, Lee; Taylor, Wesolowski, Furman, Scapuzzi; Simpson, Kuqi.
n REUBEN Reid was in action this afternoon as a young reserves side travelled to Macclesfield for a Central League, West Division fixture.
Striker Reid has missed three months of the season with a thigh injury. Ryan Brooke missed out due to a hip injury.
Reserves: Connor, Fitzgerald, Edwards, Cooper, Parkes, Burns, Bembo, Millar, Reid, Laird, Hughes. Subs: Bell, Simpson, McIntosh, Poxon.
KEEP up with the action from Chesterfield on Twitter tonight by following @matt_chambers_
Comments
most of the shots on target again but not clinical enough.
i have a bad feeling now for the return leg.
why didnt simpson take the penalty, he is the man of the moment i honestly dont think kuqi is hungry enough anymore.
he is just winding down his career.
Owdhamfan,funkster37agree.The issue of a goal scorer only went away temporarily with Kuqi. He has a loss of form it may be age has finally caught up. We also conceed far to many goals in the 40+ and 80- 95 minutes. This is really frustrating.The chance of wembley could go after last night.Sign a proper goalscorer. We were told the budget was decided at the start of the season and any extra income could be spent on the squad.250k plus from the FA cup should be spent.JAMIE VARDY fleetwood please!!
Oldham have a habit of making really good players like Kuqi to become bad ones!Kuqi was knocking them in for fun when he first came and now recently he can't score at all.
I can't seethem going to Wembley at the way they are performing,and they are sliding dowm the table fast!.....10 points away from a top 6 finish,but only 7 from the drop!
Once again,last season's death in the Winter months is becoming reality once more.
There's something basically wrong at B.P. with players it appears now almost incapable of scoring, the last month to 6 weeks proves the rot is setting in.
Sorry, and love P.D. to bits but this in the end is down to him and his team selection, some players need a short sharp lesson and quickly before this Wembley dream is also shattered, that's if if it's not already ? Losing to Chesterfield is too much to endure.
All the above is true, also cant understand why PD put lee on the left and parker was hopeless at right back surely black should be on the left and lee at right back were he normally is, pd changed this at liverpool game and weve lost all 3 games since??
Pd it's time to look at yourself and ask if you are able to alter the way the team play and if you have enough tactical expertise to improve results. If you can't/haven't well....at least be honest and stop offering excuses.
Have Your Say
Kuqi and Co can also make it seem like hard work. Once again Kuqi fails to reach the heights of when he first joined the club and misses a penalty before being subbed. The team are desperate for a goalscorer and it won't be easy to score two more than Chesterfield in the second leg. Taylor, once again, flatters to deceive but PD won't even think of dropping him or Kuqi. He seems to think they are priceless. Well, if we don't see off Chesterfield the season will over. Come on lads - a final push!
By Owdhamfan @ 18/01/2012 22:31:13