Furman back in the fold

DEAN Furman is almost certain to start against Wycombe Wanderers.

ATHLETIC captain Dean Furman is poised for a recall to face Wycombe Wanderers at Boundary Park tomorrow.

The 23-year-old has not been named in the starting line-up since the second game of the season, a home Carling Cup defeat to Carlisle on penalties.

After battling back from knee surgery, Furman impressed his manager enough in a half-hour run-out at Tranmere to indicate that he will find his way on to the team sheet this weekend.

“Nobody is an automatic choice,” warned Dickov, who revealed that the 1-0 defeat at Prenton Park represented his lowest point in football management.

“But anyone who watched the game on Saturday will have seen how it changed a little bit when Dean came on.

“You could see his enthusiasm and the way he tries to do the right things.

“On the flip side of that, we have to be careful with him. He has been out for a long time.”

As well as having difficult choices to make in the heart of midfield — Tom Adeyemi, withdrawn for Furman at Tranmere, could miss out — Dickov also has the dilemma of selecting a strike partner for Shefki Kuqi.

Filipe Morais started in that position at Prenton Park, was replaced by Robbie Simpson up front after only half-an-hour and Matt Smith then came on in Simpson’s place for the last 20 minutes.

Athletic’s boss, though, has already made his decision.

“I know what I am going to do at the weekend,” he added, also pointing out that Smith registered for the reserves in midweek against Rochdale.

As far as injuries go, striker Reuben Reid will be missing for another five weeks with a thigh muscle problem, Zander Diamond remains a defensive doubt after jarring his back and winger Josh Parker (knee) is looking at a further four weeks on the sidelines.

From the players that do take to the field tomorrow, Dickov expects more than was shown at Tranmere.

“If my team goes out, performs and still gets beaten then I am the first one to go in and say ‘well done’ to my players,” he said.

“Sometimes, my opinion changes after I have spoken to the press following the game.

“But the disappointment I had after Tranmere has not changed.

“We didn’t do ourselves any favours. Our performance levels dropped and you can possibly have that from one, two or maybe three players but not half a team.

“I was disappointed with the way we closed down. Then when we did have the ball, too many times players took too many touches and made the wrong decisions.

“Every time we put two, three or four passes together we cut them open and our final ball let us down. But we didn’t do that often enough.”