Dummigan shines for Northern Ireland U21s

Athletic defender Cameron Dummigan (centre)

Two Athletic players were on international duty over the weekend.

Full-back Cameron Dummigan represented Northern Ireland under-21s against Spain last Thursday night and despite a valiant attempt, they were defeated 5-3.

Dummigan again played the full 90 minutes in Monday night’s 0-0 draw against Iceland, which keeps them second in their Euro U21 qualification group.

Gevaro Nepomuceno played 87 minutes in Curacao’s 1-1 draw with Bolivia on Saturday, and on Tuesday morning he played the full game as they beat the same counterparts 1-0.

Both will now return to Athletic and will be available for Friday’s Sky Bet League One game at Wigan Athletic.

Meanwhile, Athletic's Academy manager Tony Philliskirk has put Saturday’s Youth team defeat against Lincoln City down to ‘a bad day at the office’.

The youngsters were defeated 4-1. 

“More than anything it was the manner of the defeat,” said Philliskirk.

“Last week I was praising the lads in wining the cup quarter final against Bury and the manner in which we won.

“Against Lincoln we played on a very small pitch, it probably did’t suit us but you have to adapt to the conditions and they certainly did that much better than us which was the disappointing thing.

“All the goals we conceded came from very poor decision making so all in all it was a bad day all round.

“We had a few players missing but I’m not using that as an excuse, one or two of the school boys that came in did well.

“I’ve just put it down as a bad day at the office and hopefully we’ll bounce back when we play Doncaster Rovers on Friday.”