Master Shef!

Latics hot-shot always hungry for more
SHEFKI Kuqi is living up to expectations. His arrival, to a response that can generally be characterised by a collective raised eyebrow, was not in keeping with the way the Kosovo-born striker goes about his affairs.

Rushed and inelegant, a flurry of quickly-finished family meals, red tape over faxes and dashes up the motorway in the early hours saw a year-long deal for the ex-Stockport, Ipswich and Crystal Palace hitman finalised on deadline day in late August.

Imagine being the poor receptionist to tell him that he can't use the hotel's fax facilities as a non-resident. No thanks.

Kuqi's intensity, even at 35, is no secret. It was part of the reason that Athletic manager Paul Dickov, Kuqi's former team-mate at Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League six years ago, was so keen to bring him in originally.

"The best thing about Shefki is that I know and he knows that there is still more to come from him," said Dickov, of a player who has appeared in all 16 fixtures since signing for the club, more often than not lasting the full duration. He scores two and wins the game, but he wants three. He echoes everything that I say and carries it through the dressing room."

A task is never finished for Kuqi. This is a man so hungry he races to get the ball back to the centre spot when his team is 5-1 to the good, as was the case when he headed home against Chesterfield on Saturday.

Asked if he was happy with his and the team's performances a couple of weeks ago, he replied in the negative to both queries. Athletic had let too many games slip; despite the raft of goals, he had not lived up to his own ideals on the pitch.

Doing part of a job is not enough for Kuqi. Which is why the feeling is — injury permitting — he is surely destined to become only the second Athletic player of the past two decades to strike 20 goals in a season.

Since dive-bombing the ground in celebration at scoring on his debut against Huddersfield, a further 11 have been forthcoming for the former Finland international.

At the current rate, and bearing in mind Athletic's current attacking verve, he will easily hit the mark traditionally thought of as being the watermark for forwards of quality at any level.

The last player to achieve the 20-goal feat in an Athletic shirt was Chris Porter, in the 2006-07 season in which John Sheridan led the club to within two games of an end-of-term promotion decider at Wembley.

Statistics show that over the past four seasons since Athletic last finished in the top six in League One, 10 of the 16 play-off places have been taken by a club possessing a forward who has scored at least 17 goals.

And of the four that ended up promoted in that period, only Doncaster (11) had a striker who failed to hit at least 23. In short, goal scorers get you places. Kuqi, and Athletic, appear to be heading along the right path.