Hectic schedule

MIDWEEK MAYHEM: Athletic boss Dave Penney.

Penney’s worry over fixture backlog

PARK LIFE: THE fixture logjam is causing plenty of concern for Athletic boss Dave Penney.

Successive matches at home to Brentford and away at Stockport have been held back due to frozen and waterlogged pitches respectively.

It leaves Athletic facing the prospect of squeezing 21 matches into the final three months of the League One season — but the fixture list could get even more cramped soon.

The prospect of an arduous midweek trip to Southampton hangs in the air, with Saints holding a 1-0 lead from the away leg of their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy southern final against MK Dons.

Should they see out the return fixture at St Mary’s on Tuesday to reach the overall final, Saints will need to rearrange their home game with Athletic which is currently set for the end of March, as the Wembley showdown is played out on the same weekend.

Penney is hopeful that he will at least have three of his currently injured players back in the coming week as he battles to wrest the club away from the relegation zone.

“I don’t want to get to a situation where we are playing Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday again,” admitted the manager.

“That would be a real downer.

“The other side of the coin is, if you do get a little niggling injury — a seven to 10 days thing — you are not missing one game, it is three or four.

“We will try to keep the squad fit. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have Jon Worthington training with us, with Lewis Alessandra and Kelvin Lomax due back as well.

“We will have to direct our training towards matches now and make sure players are fresh and ready for games.”