The best so far — Dickov

PAUL Dickov piled praise on his players after what he described as the finest performance of the promising campaign so far.

Athletic thoroughly dominated visiting Huddersfield in the first half at Boundary Park,

taking the lead through Oumare Tounkara after a swift, sweet break forward.

Only an excellent performance from Town goalkeeper Ian Bennett prevented further additions to the home goals column.

After the break, Dickov’s men defended stoutly to prevent frustrated Huddersfield from troubling Bennett’s opposite number Dean Brill.

And it was especially pleasing for the manager after the previous week’s abject display in losing at Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup first round.

“We were fantastic,” said Dickov, after a victory which takes his side to within two points of third place in npower League One, with a game in hand on all the sides above.

“Our fitness levels, some of the football we played and the chances we created was the best all season.

“We wanted a reaction from the players. We had a blip last week, but that has gone.

“Every time we have had a blip they have bounced back.

“There is great character among them.

“I was delighted with them. From Dean Brill through all the outfield players and the subs who came on, everyone played their part.”

Huddersfield came into the game on the back of a run of three wins in four matches in all competitions.

The respective playing budgets of the two sides are a long distance apart, with Lee Clark’s men well-fancied to be in with a shout of promotion this season.

Dickov, though, felt that Athletic’s superiority — acknowledged by Clark — illustrated the fact that Athletic can go toe-to-toe with any other side in what is a very open division.

“We believe when we play on the front foot like we did here, we are a match for anyone,” Dickov added.

“We have played a lot of the so-called big clubs in this division and when we have done that against them, we have done well.

“Huddersfield are a good, good team. Clarkey has got them playing well.

“We know they like to pass the ball and knew that if we let them do that, they would punish us.

“We believe we are one of the fittest teams in the league, if not the fittest, with the training we do.

“And we believe we can press the ball for 90 minutes.

“There will be times in every game, no matter who you are playing, when the other team will have pressure.

“We dealt with it. My defence was fantastic and I don’t think Dean Brill had a shot to save.”

Clark was disappointed with the way his side failed to cope with fired-up Athletic.

“Oldham deserved to be a goal up at half-time, possibly more,” he said. “Our goalkeeper prevented it from being a bigger margin at half-time.

“The 10 outfield players never got going and we lost all our individual battles.”