Summer striker search for boss

WARREN FEENEY, who is expected to lead the line for Athletic tomorrow, has scored only one goal this season.

ATHLETIC boss Paul Dickov will attempt to hunt down a new goal scorer once the season is complete.

None of Athletic's current front players have managed double figures this season and Dickov — who is set to find out his playing budget in the next few days — reckons it has cost his team a position in the table much higher than the current 16th.

The word of the moment around the club is 'evolution' and it is by this process, rather than wholesale changes in the playing staff, that the Athletic boss is hoping to improve things for his second season in management.

"We are looking to bring in a striker," Dickov said. "We have fallen short in that department this year.

"You have just got to look at our goals 'for' column and how many goals our individual players have got.

"We believe if we had somebody on 15-20 goals, we would still be up around the play-offs.

"That isn't the only place we have fallen short. We have conceded too many silly goals.

"With the nucleus of the squad we have, if we can add a couple to it for next year we have a very good chance."

After the game at Swindon tomorrow and the curtain-closer against MK Dons at Boundary Park a week later, Dickov will reveal which players are to be offered deals to stay on.

"We still don't know yet what the budget is going to be for next year," he added.

"I will be sitting down with the chairman (Simon Corney) if not at the end of this week then early next week to find out what we have got and what we have not got.

"Then probably after the MK Dons game we will sit down with the boys and tell them who we are going to offer contracts to."

As for tomorrow's game, already-relegated Swindon yesterday parted company with Paul Hart and replaced him with youth-team boss Paul Bodin.

Personal experience tells Dickov that his team will face an opposition granted freedom to play.

"I am expecting them to play relaxed football," Dickov added.

"I have played in teams that have been relegated with games still to play and I have also played against teams in the same situation.

"There is no pressure on them. Whereas when you are in a relegation battle you worry about your job, there is pressure from the fans and everyone else.

"Sometimes it is a weight off the shoulders. I will be expecting a tough, tough game.

"They will want to show their fans they are still passionate and proud and to try to give them something back as well."