We backed off — Dickov

ATHLETIC gave Huddersfield Town too much room for manoeuvre at Boundary Park, according to manager Paul Dickov.

While praising his side’s efforts in drawing with last season’s beaten play-off finalists, the Scot admitted there were still things to work on as he aims to plot a route up the npower League One table.

“It was disappointing to conceded from a set-piece,” said Dickov, whose side took the lead in the game through Shefki Kuqi’s header on his debut.

“I wouldn’t say we panicked after that but we dropped off too much and probably showed them a bit too much respect.

“For the second half, we told the boys to start in the same way (as the first) and to keep it going.

“Then for the first 25 minutes after half-time we were the better team. We had the better chances.

“I have seen a couple of Huddersfield’s games and I don’t think there have been many teams who have caused them as many problems as we did.

“Once we went down to 10 men we had to sit back a bit and were under pressure. But I thought we coped with it really, really well.”

Athletic now embark on a run of fixtures comprising Stevenage at home on Saturday, a midweek trip to Walsall three nights later and a run south to bottom-side Leyton Orient on Saturday, September 17.




ATHLETIC will play Scunthorpe United away from home in the second round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.



The game will be played at Glanford Park on Tuesday, October 4, with a kick-off time of 7pm at the request of United officials.

Athletic had received a bye in the first round and were placed in the north-east section of the draw.