Olympic goal

ATHLETIC midfielder James Wesolowski has tipped his Australian team-mate Alex Cisak to force his way into the national side’s Olympics squad.

Goalkeeper Cisak (22) has five under-20s caps to his name and will be looking to continue his impressive start to the npower League One campaign at Preston tonight (7.45pm kick-off).

The Olyroos will, like all soccer sides at London 2012, be made up of an 18-man squad comprising under-23s, with the exception of three older players — a category 24-year-old Wesolowski himself falls into.

And he thinks Cisak deserves inclusion in Aurelio Vidmar’s squad to face Iraq on November 23.

He said: “The way Alex has been playing this season, he will probably go to the Olyroos soon so they can take a closer look at him. He has earned the opportunity.

“Maybe that is something the club will want to look at because I am sure we don’t want to be losing Alex for any length of time, especially while he is in such good form.

“It is always a tough situation, but there is no point worrying until it actually becomes reality.”

Wesolowski has twice been called up for senior duty with Australia.

In 2007 a niggling injury robbed him of a place against Kuwait in an Asian Cup qualifier.

Later that year he returned to the Socceroos set-up and was an unused substitute in a 1-0 friendly victory over Nigeria.

While admitting he got a taste for national duty, Wesolowski is focused only on all things Athletic.

He added: “It is always an honour to be called up by your country but I am just concentrating on playing for Oldham at the moment.

“I don’t know what I would do if I was selected and it clashed with a club game, but luckily it is not something I have to think about unless the situation arises.”

Athletic come up against a Preston side currently failing to live up to their supporters’ expectations following last season’s drop from the Championship.

Under the stewardship of ex-Hull boss Phil Brown and assistant Brian Horton, the former Manchester City manager, the Deepdale outfit were the choice of many pundits for automatic promotion this term.

But the Lilywhites are one of the division’s great ‘unpredictables’. After kicking off with a 4-2 loss to Colchester, they embarked on an eight-match unbeaten run which was halted by a 2-1 reverse against Southampton in the Carling Cup.

Two successive triumphs looked to have put Brown’s boys back on track, but they come into tonight’s fixture on the back of four straight defeats, the latest of which saw them go down 3-1 to Huddersfield.

Athletic could be playing them at a good time — top scorer Neil Mellor is almost certain to miss out with an ankle injury.