Kuqi cracker

UP AND RUNNING: Shefki Kuqi slots home Athletic’s opening goal. PICTURE by ALAN HOWARTH

A SECOND home win of the season provided rich reward for Athletic manager Paul Dickov on a wild and soggy night.

In a game played out in front of live television cameras and a crowd of only 2,408 — the club’s lowest gate for a league game since May 3, 1986, when 2,510 supporters turned up to watch a 2-1 win against Fulham — goals from Shefki Kuqi and Tom Adeyemi were enough to see off MK Dons, who netted a consolation through Clinton Morrison.

On the balance of play, Athletic were worthy of the three npower League One points.

And despite the huge slice of good fortunate about the opening strike, which saw visiting goalkeeper David Martin slip over when racing to collect a long ball, presenting Kuqi with an empty net, Dickov said that his five-goal Finn was providing a finishing touch that was previously absent.

“That is five goals in eight games now, and Shefki scores his goals because he is in the right place,” said Dickov, who lost the services of Kuqi’s strike partner Reuben Reid to a thigh strain after only 26 minutes.

“Too many times last year, when that ball has bounced over their ’keeper there is nobody there to get on the end of it.

“The reason he gets his goals is because he is in the right position and it doesn’t matter what they are like or how they come.”

While Athletic have been praised of late for grinding out results, the high-flying Dons were regularly cut open by passing moves on a slick surface. Particularly with chances falling to Kuqi again and Filipe Morais, further goals almost arrived for an Athletic side, who sneak above Saturday’s opponents Tranmere in the table.

“I want us to play football,” Dickov added.

“Yes, I want us to press the ball and yes, I want us to work hard.

“But when we win it back, I want us to play and some of the chances we created through our football were excellent.

“We work a lot on teams we play against. The decisions to press at the right times were excellent; we sat off when we had to and it came good.

“The whole back four were great and it is hard to single anyone out. The subs came on and did well too.”

Dickov had special praise for the outstanding David Mellor at left-back, who caught the attention both defensively and going forward.

“He is a young boy who was up against Luke Chadwick, one of the best players in the division, Angelo Balanta and then they brought on Daniel Powell,” the Athletic manager added, also finding kind words for the efforts of Tom Adeyemi and Chris Taylor.

“He coped with it really well, before he cramped up after getting tired towards the end.”

Meanwhile, full-back Bradley Diallo has been ruled out of action for 12 weeks.

Named in yesterday’s 18-man squad for the game as an apparent piece of kidology, the former Marseille defender has been revealed to have torn a hamstring in the recent win at Scunthorpe.