Go for it!

WINNING FEELING... Athletic forward Chris Taylor celebrates victory over Huddersfield Town.

We are good enough to go up — Hazell

REUBEN Hazell has urged Athletic to ‘seize the day’ and claim a top-six finish in npower League One this season.

Athletic’s captain, speaking after the highly-impressive and stylish 1-0 home win over Huddersfield Town at Boundary Park, believes that the squad marshalled by boss Paul Dickov is capable of achieving at least a play-off place.

The 31-year-old, who has formed an excellent partnership at the heart of defence with Jean-Yves Mvoto — last week’s FA Cup exit at Accrington excepted — warned that the opportunity to go for promotion may be significantly slimmer next season.

And his ‘carpe diem’ call comes ahead of an attractive run of fixtures against Dagenham, Exeter, Rochdale, Walsall and Swindon — all teams currently below 11th-placed Athletic in the table.

“If we don’t achieve something this season, whether it is automatic promotion or the play-offs, we are going to be a very disappointed bunch,” said Hazell, following a clash which was decided by Oumare Tounkara’s first-half strike.

“People might say that is putting pressure on ourselves, but in the dressing room, we know what we have got.

“It doesn’t take a performance like that (against Huddersfield) to tell us that we are good enough. We know we are good enough.

“Standing at the back watching the boys pop it about is great. It is just a shame that some of the moves didn’t end in goals.

“We had chances to finish them off, with some great one and two-touch football.

“We have a lot of talent. We need to produce it more consistently, but we can play good football.”

This is Hazell’s fourth season at the club and the Birmingham-born defender drew a distinction between this campaign and the last, which was characterised by uninspiring football and a battle against relegation.

“It is a different brand of football to last season,” he added. “We are playing with more confidence and that is why we say that this year, it would be a shame if we don’t do something.

“You never know what will happen next year. Players may move on and it may be a totally different squad.

“So while you have a squad like this, you want to make sure you do something as you may not have it next time around.

“It is a real pleasure to play with these boys.”

Dagenham, Athletic’s next opponents, leapfrogged Yeovil by beating the Huish Park outfit 3-1 and now sit third from bottom.

Along with winger Filipe Morais, who now starts a three-game ban, Athletic midfielder Dean Furman will miss the trip to Victoria Road after picking up a one-match suspension for accumulating five bookings this season.