Teenage kicks

CENTRE OF ATTENTION: Tom Eaves bursts through to double Athletic’s tally.

Athletic 3, Bolton 0

CONFIDENT Athletic continue to impress under new manager Paul Dickov, seeing off established Premier League opposition with a comprehensive performance.

Tom Eaves claimed the match ball after firing in an excellent hat-trick — the first time he has hit the net playing for the senior side.

While the 18-year-old claimed the individual plaudits, though, Dickov was left reflecting on a team performance in which Athletic were again solid and organised while passing the ball superbly.

Not least near the end of the game, when the Boundary Park crowd were shouting out ‘Ole!’ after every successful ball played between men in blue shirts.

Bolton, who drew 1-1 at Rochdale on Saturday, fielded a strong side but looked way off the pace following a recent tour of North America.

And some of the tackles put in by the Trotters would have been more at home in the NFL than a pre-season ‘friendly’ fixture.

Still, Athletic weren’t cowed by physical opposition and the sheer confidence and verve displayed in this game — added to previous impressive pre-season efforts against Burnley of the Championship and Premier League side Wigan — bodes well for the forthcoming npower League One campaign.

Eaves’s treble already achieved, in kind, what Athletic failed to muster all of last season.

You have to go back a year-and-a-half to find the last time Athletic scored three goals in a competitive fixture, Chris Taylor netting the winner in a 3-2 win at Millwall.

But for all the acclaim of an understandably excited home crowd, Dickov also urged caution.

“I am delighted,” the manager said. “We spoke to the boys before the game about the standards they had set themselves.

“It started off against Burnley, then we dropped off against Falkirk and paid the price for that.

“Against Wigan last week it was better again and before the game here we said it was about what we do — not the teams we play against, whatever level they are at.

“If we do things properly, we are a half-decent team.

“I actually thought we were sloppy in the first 10 to 15 minutes when our tempo wasn’t great.

“But once we stepped it up, we did well.

“It isn’t so much the result. If we had been beaten playing like that I would still have been pleased.

“When we got the ball, at times our passing was good.

“To score three goals is a bonus, but the performance was the thing that pleased us.

“At the same time, I reminded the players that it is not about this, or Preston on Saturday — it is about Tranmere in a week-and-a-half’s time.”

Eaves began the game on the bench and came on for the injured Warren Feeney after 23 minutes, the Northern Ireland striker complaining of a sore ankle sustained in an early collision.

It took him only three minutes to have a big impact. Taking Lewis Alessandra’s neat flick, Eaves adjusted his feet on the edge of the area before guiding a low, pinpoint shot past the outstretched right hand of Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Martin Petrov, signed recently from Manchester City, came close to levelling for Wanderers with a free-kick which sizzled a foot over Dean Brill’s goal.

But when the second goal came, it was deserved. Reuben Hazell, captaining the side, strode forward with purpose and slid in Eaves.

The ball appeared to get stuck between his feet as centre-backs Gary Cahill and Zat Knight converged, but Eaves did well to dig out a finish which went under Jaaskelainen’s body three minutes before half-time.

Bolton made three changes at the break but they had little effect and Athletic soon extended their advantage.

Alessandra produced a swift injection of pace through the middle of the field and put in Ryan Brooke, the striker’s outstretched leg flicking the ball into the path of Eaves. With Jaaskelainen out of his goal, the teenager coolly converted his third goal of the game.

Petrov hit the underside of the crossbar and Johan Elmander had an effort beaten away by Brill before Dale Stephens came close to a fourth for Athletic, forcing Jaaskelainen into a diving save to parry a long-range strike.


Athletic: Brill; Lee (Holdsworth 72), Hazell (Matthew D Carr 72), Jarrett, Black; Jones (Bembo-Leta 69), Furman, Stephens, Alessandra; Brooke (Dickov 76), Feeney (Eaves 13). Subs not used: Abbott, Fleming, Kompany.

Goals: Eaves (26, 42, 56).

Bolton: Jaaskelainen; Ricketts (Steinsson 46), Cahill, Knight, Robinson; Holden (M Davies 46), Muamba (Lee 61), J O’Brien (Elmander 46); Petrov, K Davies (Blake 72), Taylor (Cohen 61). Subs not used: A O’Brien, Samuel, Gardner, Riga, Bogden.

Att: 1,871 (315)