Brooke kicking his heels

ATHLETIC have yet to conclude any more loan deals to get fringe players game-time elsewhere.

But if and when such arrangements are finalised, they will hope for a better result than has so far been the case with Ryan Brooke.

The 20-year-old striker is into his third week of a month’s loan at Blue Square Bet Premier side Barrow.

But Brooke has barely had a look-in. Of his four substitute appearances, three have seen him thrown on inside the final six minutes of normal time.

That is hardly an ideal situation, given that Athletic sent Brooke out to the Bluebirds with the intention of regaining some goalscoring form.

“This time last year, if he had been fit he would have started,” Dickov said of Brooke, when the move originally came about.

“What he needs to do now is get his confidence back, start scoring goals — which we know he will — and then come back here ready to go into the first team.”

With a strong reserves side fielded in the 3-3 draw with Burnley this week, other players could make moves out to lower-division clubs in order to gain experience.

Kirk Millar and Connor Hughes, who both had their work-rate praised by reserves boss Lee Duxbury, are prime candidates for temporary moves, as is centre-back Matty Carr.