Keep it down!

ATHLETIC manager Paul Dickov has warned his players against falling into the trap of getting the ball forward too soon.

With two powerfully-built forwards in Reuben Reid and Shefki Kuqi operating in tandem during the Brentford defeat at Boundary Park on Saturday the home team often missed out the midfield altogether in order to try to set the pair away.

When going in search of a third straight away win at Exeter this weekend, Dickov wants his men to play more football on the floor — and to snap into tackles more quickly.

“We went back to front too quickly and didn’t get our wide players in the game enough until the last 10 to 15 minutes,” the Athletic boss said.

“It is what we work on in training. Yes, we have got Shefki and Reuben up front — Reuben was excellent — but you have to mix it up.

“I knew Brentford would be organised because I know Uwe (Rosler, Brentford’s manager) personally and on the football pitch and I know what he is like.

“He has good players there who do their jobs and we had too many who didn’t do theirs, especially without the ball.

“We lost another goal from the second phase (Jonathan Douglas’s opening strike) and for the second we are pushing forward and they have hit us on the break a little bit. We should still be better than that.”

As for the dilemma he faced over selecting his defence for the Bees game, Dickov explained that his decision was based on the side which ended the game in the 3-1 comeback win at Leyton Orient, when Zander Diamond came on to replace injured left-back David Mellor.

With Nathan Clarke starting at right-back, Kieran Lee was on the left with no place for Bradley Diallo, who returned from a three-match ban picked up for his red card against Huddersfield Town.

“Bradley was possibly unfortunate not to start,” Dickov added. “I decided to go with the same back five which kept a clean sheet and scored three goals at Orient for over an hour.”