Consistency is key — Dickov

Tom Adeyemi will be hoping to keep his place in Athletic’s starting line-up for Saturday’s home match against Stevenage Borough.

ATHLETIC manager Paul Dickov has set his side the goal of maintaining their performance levels this weekend.

Promoted Stevenage visit Boundary Park on Saturday for the first meeting between the two sides.

Npower League Two play-off final winners over Torquay, the Hertfordshire side have made a good start to their season and currently lie 11th in the table, two points and four places clear of Athletic.

Dickov is keen that his men put in every bit as much effort as in the 1-1 draw with Huddersfield at the weekend and believes that, if anything, the fixture is “bigger” than the cross-Pennines clash in terms of its importance.

“I keep talking about consistency and we had two fantastic results against Scunthorpe away and Rochdale and then we go and get beaten (at Colchester),” said the Athletic manager.

“We need to get that consistency.”

Athletic welcome back Carl Winchester, who is currently in Northern Ireland for this afternoon’s UEFA Under-21 Championship qualifier with Denmark, for Saturday’s clash.

The 18-year-old will do battle for a central midfield spot with Tom Adeyemi and James Wesolowski.

Also returning is on-loan centre-back Nathan Clarke, who was ineligible to face his parent club Huddersfield.

Josh Parker (knee) and Dean Furman (knee) remain on the sidelines, along with suspended Bradley Diallo.

Athletic are currently awaiting the results of a scan on Paul Black’s groin injury. It is anticipated the full-back will be out of action for a number of weeks.

The loan window opens on Thursday.