Dickov eyes gloss finish

Photo: Alan Howarth

NET PROFIT: Shefqi Kuqi gets on the end of Chris Taylor’s header to put Athletic into the area quarter-finals.

Paint Trophy offers Latics Wembley bait
VICTORIOUS Paul Dickov has his sights firmly set on a Wembley appearance after a fourth Shefki Kuqi strike of the season sent Athletic into the area quarter-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

The big forward followed up Chris Taylor’s header towards goal after Nathan Clarke had hit the bar with his own headed effort, giving Athletic a 26th-minute lead they didn’t give up at Glanford Park last night.

That was despite coming under siege from Alan Knill’s Scunthorpe at times in the second half, in an entertaining clash which made a lie of the view of many that the competition is unimportant and second-rate.

Certainly for Dickov – who presided over the club’s first knock-out victory in more than three years – the 1-0 triumph was one to savour, leaving the club only three stage wins away from a showpiece final.

“I think you saw there that both teams wanted to win it,” said Dickov, who will check on the fitness of Bradley Diallo later this week, the full-back replaced by David Mellor in the sixth minute due to a hamstring problem.

“I have been really, really geared up for the game. It was something that annoyed me last year, that we went out of the cups as early as we did. It annoyed me against Carlisle (in the Carling Cup) as well.

“I believe that in a cup-tie, or in any game, if we are at it then we can win games.

“We have four games now until the final and can look towards the next game to come.

“But every club in the cup will feel as if they have a chance.”

Scunthorpe spurned a number of chances to level in the second half as Athletic rode their luck, with the home side’s best opportunity falling to Bobby Grant in the opening period, his header well saved at point-blank range by goalkeeper Alex Cisak.

“We put a little bit of pressure on ourselves in the last 15 minutes, but we were away from home against a very good side,” added Dickov.

“It is going to happen and we knew that before we came here. They have just had two really good back-to-back wins.

“We had to show a lot of character to keep in the game and our two centre-halves (Zander Diamond and Nathan Clarke) and goalkeeper (Cisak) were magnificent.

“I spoke to the chairman (Simon Corney) beforehand about how unlucky we were at Exeter and I said we’d take a lucky win.

“I am not sure it was that lucky, as we played some good stuff at times.

“We defended well and said to the boys to keep going. I would describe it as a hard-fought win.”

No reserves match takes place this week so Athletic’s manager may now have a re-think about a practice game he had planned in order to give Dean Furman and Paul Black a run-out.

“With Bradley getting injured and David (Mellor) coming on, we will have to be very careful about who we put out for the game,” Dickov said.