Top-six finish is achievable aim

FORWARD power... Oumare Tounkara, pictured scoring against Huddersfield Town, has caused opposition defenders plenty of problems.

CAN a team still be in good form when it hasn’t played in a month?

It is a question Athletic would like the answer to — whether in the affirmative or the negative.

Not playing football is torture for football people. Angry fists can be shaken at the skies, but there is nothing else players can do but train, prepare, train, prepare and train, prepare some more.

The frustration at not having taken to the field since the draw at Rochdale in late November — itself a game which took place on a pitch with a solid frosty crust — is amplified when examining the teams manager Paul Dickov has missed out on pitting his men against.

The first game to fall by the wayside was an away trip to Walsall. Nobody will say as much publicly, but there was no way in the world the team then-bottom of npower League One fancied it going ahead. Not after two straight defeats and with no fit senior strikers available to play.

Then came the Swindon Town fixture at Boundary Park. Called off a day early to avoid the risk of a five-figure payout, Dickov was not happy that a Robins side without its suspended playmaker Jonathan Douglas were let off the hook.

And finally, the positive noises made by MK Dons officials ahead of Saturday’s scheduled clash were made to look as silly as a snowman in June. The most recent postponement gave a team with only one fit forward — Jabo Ibehre, a target man with no goals to his name in 17 league appearances this season — a chance to regroup, after three losses in a row plus an FA Cup exit to League Two club Stevenage.

It is far from an ideal scenario for an Athletic side with only one defeat to its name in the league since September.

But at least the lack of action gives time to reflect on what has so far been a very positive season for the Boundary Park club.

There have been drastic dips.

Three successive first-round exits in cup competitions pleased nobody at the club. Bright but unsuccessful in losing 2-1 at Scunthorpe in the Carling Cup, Athletic were at best indifferent in a 1-0 defeat at home to Shrewsbury in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and plain awful when going down 3-2 at Accrington in the FA Cup.

That is a pretty poor record for a club with a well-publicised chronic lack of funds, who badly needed a money-spinning run in a knockout competition.

Overall, though, there is precious little to complain about.

Those losses are comfortably outweighed by bright, energetic victories wrought by one of Athletic’s youngest-ever sides.

Tranmere on the opening day was a terrific start, after a nervy opening Notts County were battered 3-0 in a performance that brought about (albeit barbed) ‘Real Madrid’ comparisons by then-Magpies manager Craig Short and the win at Brentford featured some clinical finishing.

The manager himself reckons the gritty 1-0 win at Dagenham was the most pleasing of the lot. Aidan White’s debut goal was the clear highlight for a committed visiting side at Victoria Road, against a team producing more long punts forward than an England rugby union side.

And well-fancied Huddersfield may be able to provide player wages Dickov can only dream of. But they were not so much beaten as eviscerated by rampant Athletic in a 1-0 win which could easily have been embellished by another four goals.

The feeling is that Athletic could easily be higher up in the division right now. That would certainly be the case but for the infamous collapse from three goals up against Exeter at home — a game featuring 45 minutes of the best football any team can possibly have produced in League One this season.

Athletic’s general standard of play, built on hard work off the ball and quick passing on it, is so good when compared to the injury-hit team of last term it can hardly be compared — like a stream of delicious fillet steaks after a diet of soggy porridge.

In men like Dean Furman, Kieran Lee, Chris Taylor and the unheralded Paul Black, the proof of Dickov’s tasty pudding is the increased level of performance of players who stuck around from last term.

And loan signings have been spot-on. Shaky starts for Jean-Yves Mvoto and Oumare Tounkara have been well and truly forgotten. Both young Frenchmen are real monsters at this level: terrifying to play against.

Cedric Evina has done well since arriving from Arsenal and two-goal Aidan White from Leeds United was a real coup for Dickov.

A busy January period can make-or-break Athletic’s play-off dreams. For now at least, all the evidence suggests there is no reason to believe that top-six thoughts are a flight of fancy




Latics’ next game — hopefully: Sunday (v Carlisle, home, npower League One)