Dickov salutes ‘rock’ Clarke

Nathan Clarke: powerful performance

PAUL Dickov hailed the contribution of new-boy Nathan Clarke as Athletic bagged a derby-day three points against Rochdale.

The Huddersfield Town centre-back is on loan at Boundary Park until January and marked his arrival with a headed goal — Athletic’s second of the afternoon — in the comfortable 2-0 win over a Dale side who were by then reduced to 10 men after the dismissal of Neal Trotman.

“He was fantastic,” said Dickov, on a player who had only trained once with his new team-mates before being thrust into the starting line-up in place of the suspended Jean-Yves Mvoto.

“He showed his experience and tired towards the end as we expected.

“But he was a rock at the back.”

Halifax-born Clarke’s efforts were all the more noteworthy for the fact that he has been shunned of late at Huddersfield, the club where he has made exactly 300 career appearances and also home to his brother, midfielder Tom.

The 27-year-old will now do battle with Mvoto for a starting spot on Saturday at Colchester — the club he played for 18 times on loan last season.

“I was sat doing nothing, basically, training with a group of six or seven players (at Huddersfield) and it was tough,” said Clarke of his Athletic switch.

“I needed to get out and I have been given the opportunity here to play games.

“It is good to get back into playing again. It is what I enjoy and in a big derby game, luckily we have come away with three points.

“I trained once on Friday, but it is what footballers do. Everyone knows the positions and once you get a grasp of all the names, it is pretty simple.

“Zander (Diamond) is a good talker and it just worked.

“It was one of those dream debuts and something I will remember.”

One injury concern emerged from Athletic’s second successive win in npower League One.

David Mellor missed the match through illness and winger Josh Parker suffered a bang on his knee while attempting to step round Dale goalkeeper Jake Kean. He left the ground on crutches and was being assessed today.

New signing Bradley Diallo got a brief run-out late on and Dickov hinted at further arrivals this week.

“We are down the road with a couple,” he said.

“I am loathe to say it as people get excited. But I want to strengthen the squad.

“The lads who have performed for me in the last two games have been fantastic and I want to keep them on their toes.”