Perfect example

LEADING FROM THE FRONT: experienced striker Shefki Kuqi

Kuqi attitude is ‘lesson for everyone’
THE ACQUISITION of experience is one of the goals for Athletic as they strive to improve.

Manager Paul Dickov believes that barely 24 hours goes by where he does not pick up a small nugget of beneficial information — often originating from his own previous actions which have not gone to plan.

His young squad, in the midst of a very stable patch of form — one defeat in six games — are also benefiting from accumulated knowledge thanks to the influential presence of striker Shefki Kuqi.

“Shefki has made a big impact on the whole staff,” said Dickov, on his 34-year-old former Blackburn Rovers team-mate who has already come up trumps with two goals in three games, even taking on the captaincy for the 1-0 win at Walsall in the absence of Dean Furman and Zander Diamond.

“He’s a loveable big guy and his attitude is a lesson for everyone.

“We’re a young squad and they’ve got to look up to Shefki on and off the pitch about how he looks after himself. Hopefully, that will take them where they want to go.”

Dickov says that he regularly undergoes periods of reflection in order to perform his role increasingly effectively.

“I’ve learned lots of things,” he added, following the third npower League One win of the season at the Bescot Stadium.

“I learned a lot at Walsall and I’m learning every day in the job.

“I’m always asking my players to be the best they can and I want to be that.

“I’ve made lots of mistakes, but I’ll do my best not to make them over and over again. It’s just in my make-up.”

It is not often that a one-goal margin of victory evokes such strong sentiment as relayed by Dickov, even less so when such wins come about, as on Tuesday night, via a heavily deflected winner from Chris Taylor.

But for Athletic — whose manager last season notably cited a win by a solitary goal at Dagenham as one of his highlights of the campaign — it is regularly turning one point into a maximum three in such tight encounters which will make all the difference in terms of the ultimate destiny come May, 2012.

“Walsall is a hard place to come and I’m delighted with my players,” Dickov added.

“At times, it wasn’t the prettiest but when we got the ball down and passed it I thought we looked excellent.

“We scored a good goal from doing that. In the first 20 minutes of the second half we were fantastic and I thought we deserved another goal.

“It was a battling performance and at times we played some fantastic football.

“We had a bit of everything, we knocked it around, scored a really good goal and some of our defending from back to front was good.

“For me it was the perfect performance. It was magnificent right throughout the team.”