Dickov hails top prospect

Paul Dickov (right) welcomes new Latics defender Rod McDonald

ATHLETIC manager Paul Dickov has boosted his defensive ranks by snapping up trialist Rod McDonald on a one-year contract.

Released by Stoke City in the summer, the 18-year-old is another player who has been successfully converted to play as a centre-back.

Like Jason Jarrett, it is not a position he has operated in for long — as a trainee, McDonald was converted from being a striker by Stoke’s then youth team coach Noel Blake — but Dickov has liked what he has seen of the player in pre-season.

“Rod is a very good prospect with a lot of potential and it is good to have him on board,” said the Athletic boss of the powerful, quick 6ft 3in defender whose older brother Clayton plays at centre-back for Walsall.

“He is big, young and hungry and he has done really well during pre-season.

“Rod is still a baby, but is big in stature. He is still learning his trade and is raw, but we see a lot we can work on.”

McDonald, whose father Rod played as a forward for Walsall, hails from Crewe and was brought to Stoke after impressing as a junior at Nantwich Town.

ATHLETIC’S youth team take on Ashton tonight at Hurst Cross (7.30pm kick-off).

Young pair Andrew Crompton and Matthew D Carr, who both appeared for the first team in the home friendly with Preston on Saturday, are in the squad for the game.

Tony Philliskirk’s boys are looking to maintain an unbeaten pre-season record which has so far taken in a 2-2 draw at Silsden, a 1-0 win at New Mills and a 9-1 home thrashing of Rotherham at the weekend.

Athletic (from): Ollerenshaw, Winchester, Kidd, Tarkowski, Parks, Burns, Matthew A Carr, Mellor, Hughes, Laird, Riley, Jones, Bell, Routledge, Connor, Matthew D Carr, Crompton.

FORMER Athletic prodigy Danny Philliskirk, the 19-year-old son of youth team coach Tony, has joined newly-promoted League Two club Oxford on a month’s loan from Chelsea.

Signed as a schoolboy in 2007 for an initial fee believed to be around £150,000, Philliskirk is a former England under-17 international who has yet to make a first-team appearance for the Stamford Bridge club.