No slacking now — boss

PAUL DICKOV: “we feel we have half a chance.”

PAUL Dickov is no stranger to the play-offs — and he is determined to retrace his steps with Athletic now they have reached fifth place in npower League One.

The Scot helped Manchester City earn promotion ‘the hard way’ from the third tier of English football almost 12 years ago with that famous injury-time leveller against Gillingham at Wembley, a game the Blues won on penalties.

The word ‘promotion’ has been mentioned in hushed tones despite the feelgood factor at Boundary Park this season but, after seeing his side climb into the play-off places, Dickov is happy to articulate his desire to be there come May.

“The aim is to stay in the play-off places now we are there,” he said, speaking ahead of tonight’s home clash with Hartlepool (7.45pm kick-off).

“We never get carried away here, but it would be stupid and naive to say ‘no, we cannot do it’.

“We feel we have half a chance. We are nowhere near the finished article, but we have also come a heck of a long way since last summer.

“There are an awful lot of points to play for. But everyone knows it will not be easy. Win two or three and you are right in the mix, lose two or three and you can easily find yourselves down in 13th or 14th position.”

Tonight, Athletic look to avenge the 4-2 defeat they suffered at Hartlepool at the start of the year.

The North-East outfit are a different prospect this term under Mick Wadsworth, who succeeded Chris Turner.

Wadsworth already has one manager of the month award to his name this season and Dickov praised the work being done at Victoria Park.

He added: “Mick is doing a good job up there and has picked them right up.

“They turned us over in January so we are obviously looking to put it right.”

Dickov takes plenty of encouragement from the 2-2 draw at Carlisle at the weekend, a game Athletic were a whisker away from winning before a last-gasp James Berrett penalty.

“For 75 minutes we produced arguably our best performance of the season,” he said.

“We need to replicate that against Hartlepool because, when we are playing like that, teams find it very hard to compete with us.”

Three points tonight would keep Athletic firmly in the promotion hunt.

Next month, Dickov and the rest of City’s heroes of 1999 reunite for the first time at a special dinner at Eastlands.

Maybe, just maybe, the likes of Reuben Hazell, Dean Furman and Oumare Tounkara will get together in 2023 to reminisce about their own play-off triumph.