Raining points

Dave Penney: Misery — and it rained too

Penney determined to kick-start Latics’ season

ATHLETIC manager Dave Penney (pictured) is targeting a points pick-me-up in what is a crucial period of the season.

Having completed a set of fixtures in which Athletic came up against four of the top five in Coca-Cola League One in a little over a month, Penney’s next task is readying his troops for a match of big significance at home to Exeter City on Saturday.

Lying just outside the relegation zone in 20th place in the division, after Southampton leapfrogged them with a 3-1 win at Walsall, Athletic are up against a team three places higher in the table but only one point superior.

Victory at Boundary Park could see Penney’s men climb as high as 13th — but defeat, coupled with a Brighton win, would result in goal-shy Athletic being plunged into the relegation zone for the first time this season.

“The Exeter game is a real six-pointer now and we have had a real tough run of games against the likes of Norwich, Leeds twice, Huddersfield, Southampton and Colchester,” said Penney after the 2-0 defeat at Norwich.

“Those teams are up there with big fan bases and big budgets.

“We haven’t disgraced ourselves and nobody has battered us. We have managed to hang in games and give ourselves a chance.

“But we have a run now in the next six to eight weeks of teams that are around about us, so it is important we do pick points up against them.”

After Exeter, Athletic face a run of winnable matches against Wycombe (away), Tranmere (home), Hartlepool (away), Leyton Orient (home) and Stockport (away).

Penney also said that he expects to be working with the same 18 players on duty at Carrow Road for the Exeter game, with only the return of the suspended Alex Marrow sweetening the pill for the manager.

Reuben Hazell (calf) is out for at least another two weeks, Chris Taylor (hamstring) has no comeback date and Andy Holdsworth (tendonitis) is in line to see a specialist after a recurrence of the problem that plagued the former Huddersfield Town player earlier this season.

Paul Heffernan came off injured against Norwich and was replaced by Keigan Parker, but the hope is that the loan striker’s injury won’t prove to be serious.

“He had a dead leg in the first half and we decided to let him go on second half to see how it was, but it was too sore so we pulled him off,” Penney added.

Goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan has signed a one-month extension to his loan spell at Athletic.


ATHLETIC are holding a consultation meeting at Radclyffe School on Wednesday (7pm) odver plans for the new stadium and are encouraging as many fans as possible to come along.