TV fame inspires home run

Athletic’s stylish disposal of MK Dons in the televised clash last month marked a watershed moment.

Before Sky Sports cameras rocked their way across the Broadway car park, opposition teams could barely have feared taking on Paul Dickov’s side at all.

A wretched run of one win in 15 matches at Boundary Park — this included nine fixtures from last season — indicated that if home is where the heart is, Athletic were in a state of constant cardiac arrest.

Shefki Kuqi benefited from a slip by goalkeeper David Martin to slide home Athletic’s first goal and Tom Adeyemi added a well-taken second to establish an unassailable lead. Overall, the display from Dickov’s men, which earned a 2-1 win, was a cut above what had gone before.

And the home form since has been that of true promotion candidates.

The 2-0 loss to Bury can at least partly be attributed to the early loss of goalkeeper Alex Cisak to a red card, but in any case that game slots inside a sequence of five victories from six matches on home soil — a sequence which has seen Athletic progress to the Northern Area semi-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, the second round of the FA Cup and to within three points of the npower League One top six.

It is as if the rousing effort in front of a national audience helped to give Dickov’s side a large adrenaline shot to the chest.

“Earlier in the season, our home form wasn’t what I wanted,” admitted the Athletic manager, who still believes his team are capable of more. Even going back to the Bury game, we played some good stuff.

“We know the fans will back us if we try to play in the right way and if the boys are giving it everything they have got. We are getting the results to go with that now.”

Dickov will target a maintenance of the shifted momentum after successive away trips to Bournemouth in League One and the winners of tonight’s Southend-Preston replay in the FA Cup.

Three of the four league fixtures in December are home games against Sheffield Wednesday, Hartlepool and Notts County, in addition to the JPT tie against Bradford City at Boundary Park. The sole away trip is to current front-runners Charlton.