Players in for a rough ride

ATHLETIC’S failure in the FA Cup has increased the chances of players being sold in the upcoming transfer window.

That is the stark message that has been delivered by manager Lee Johnson, as the club counts the financial and emotional cost of consecutive silverware exits at SportsDirect.com Park.

Already out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at the hands of Preston via a penalty shoot-out, Athletic succumbed to Doncaster in a manner Johnson branded as unacceptable.

And while it could cause him headaches in terms of not being able to bring in the players he would like in the New Year — as well as possibly having to sell — he promised that the squad would feel their own pain in training this week ahead of the crunch Sky Bet league One clash with Yeovil on Saturday.

“I feel like there is punishment needed for that one,” said Johnson. “I'll determine what punishment.

“I wasn’t happy. There was not enough going on, verbally or physically or in terms of running. So there will be some punishment for it.

“They will have to lick their wounds and be ready for Saturday.

“A lot of them have been fantastic, but unless they see the error of their ways then we can't get better.

“And it’s about getting better. We are out of the cup but the good thing is, we are still very much in with a chance of the play-offs.

“If we play like that, we won’t pick up results.

“It is disappointing. The financial side, we had hoped to use a good cup run to add a couple to the squad.

“Now it looks as if we will have to maybe stick with the same squad or even reduce it.

“That’s just the way it is. We crack on with it and certain players have got to step up to the mark.

“We have James Wilson and Mike Jones back now, which is good, and we move on.”

Wilson returns from a one-match suspension for the Yeovil clash, which pits son against father Gary for the second time, while Jones is expected to recover from a bug in time to feature.

As was the case with the Preston game, Johnson felt that certain players didn’t step up to the mark.

“We have lost two home games in the last two cup encounters when we shouldn’t have and I am disappointed,” he added.

“I hope it doesn’t affect the players’ psyche, because if it does then there is an issue there.

“I just think that, for whatever reason, the players who came in, didn’t step up again.

“That’s all I can say about it. When somebody comes in, and Carl Winchester has found himself unlucky to be out of the side, he has to come in and produce a really effective game. And he didn’t.”

Johnson also said that Timothee Dieng was unfortunate to miss out on a starting spot against Paul Dickov’s side.

business

“Timmy was unlucky, due to a formation change we thought we could do the business with,” he said.

“He would be within his rights to come knocking on my door to say, ‘I should have been playing’.

“He hasn’t and he has taken it well.”

And as for the illness creeping through the club which laid low Jones, Johnson admitted his frustration.

He said: “I don’t know what’s going on. There is one bug affecting one person every two days.

“They are not all going down together.

“People are getting ill with the norovirus and it is certainly something we could do without.”