Dean’s delight at first goal

ATHLETIC midfielder Dean Furman

ATHLETIC midfielder Dean Furman was delighted to get the monkey off his back at the weekend.

Impressive in pre-season, the South Africa-born player is one of a number of men to have a revitalised look about them since the arrival of new manager Paul Dickov.

Again against Notts County — Athletic’s second npower League One victory of the season — the central partnership of Furman and Dale Stephens excelled.

As far as 22-year-old Furman was concerned, the one thing missing from his game was goals.

But he ended his 39-match barren run with a brilliant first-half shot from 30 yards out, which topped off an equally impressive spell of one-touch passing. Report on Pages 34 and 35.

“It is about time,” said a relieved Furman of his 31st-minute wonder-strike.

“It has been bad for me and all the lads have been getting on my back, saying that I was never going to score.

“But now I am playing with a bit more freedom and along with Dale we are able to get forward a bit more.

“The goal was coming and happily, after a great move, it arrived.

“I was delighted with it and also delighted with the three points.”

Furman’s was by no means an isolated example of a fine Athletic goal this season.

Stephens grabbed the headlines with a pair of excellent efforts at Tranmere, Djeny Bembo-Leta finished off a flowing move at Scunthorpe and Oumare Tounkara took his half-volleyed strike against the Magpies very well.

“During pre-season and also at Tranmere and Scunthorpe we have been playing some really nice stuff,” Furman added.

“Djeny’s goal was also a great move in midweek and we have scored a few other great goals as well.

“We are playing some lovely, free-flowing stuff and the good thing is there is an end product to go with it.

“It will be great to look at the table for a week, but we don’t want to get carried away.

“We have only played two league games and there is a tough one coming up.

“We will take it game-by-game, get our heads down and work hard to try and pick up points.”

Athletic, now top of the table, take on second-placed Charlton at The Valley on Saturday and Dickov expects a tough test.

“It will be tough for us,” said Dickov. “We often talk about a togetherness and not giving in, and they have had two games and have been down to 10 men twice and have pulled out wins on both occasions.

“It will be difficult, but we will get ready for it.”