League is our bread and butter – Dickov

AFTER pouring out cups of tea for fans waiting in the pouring rain to buy Liverpooltickets, Athletic manager Paul Dickov is looking for his own pick-me-up over the New Year period.

Disappointing in losing 1-0 to Hartlepool — a scoreline which flattered the Boundary Park hosts — Dickov is targeting a six-point haul from npower League One tests at home to Notts County and at Chesterfield.

And the trick is, to keep minds focused on the jobs in hand.

"Every time I speak to fans, or people outside of the club, all the emphasis is on the Liverpool game," said Dickov, whose seasonal show of goodwill outside the ticket office yesterday morning impressed many on internet message boards and on twitter.

"We are eight points off the play-offs. And I believe if we put a run together, we will be up there at the end of the season.

"As hard as it is to ignore Liverpool, we want to get back on track in the league.

"That is your bread and butter, how you judge yourselves over a season."

Dickov, who is hoping to keep all of his loan players together well into the New Year, reiterated the position that the chances of bringing back Robbie Simpson may be down to any agreement struck between him and Huddersfield Town, the club the striker is contracted to until the summer.

"Robbie has been a miss for us," Dickov admitted. "He is a good player, who links the midfield and the forward line so well.

"We are desperately trying to get him back and he wants to come back.

"Ultimately, it is going to be up to Huddersfield and to Robbie to see if they can get something done."


DICKOV on Notts County and their manager Martin Allen:

"He has done an unbelievable job. At one point last season they looked certainties to go down, but he has come in, kept them up and now they are making a real push.

"Throughout the games I have watched, their players all want to play for their manager. It will be a tough contest.

"I don't want anyone to get sucked into the myth that just because they have players like Lee Hughes and Ben Burgess up front, they just launch the ball.

"They have got good players as well, good footballers.

"But the boys are determined to go out there and show grit.”

Gavin Mahon is County’s main fitness concern.

The midfield lynchpin is nursing a sore hamstring, which saw him miss the defeat at Sheffield United.

Notts County (probable, 4-4-2): Nelson; Kelly, Pearce, Edwards, Sheehan; Judge, Bishop, Allen, J Hughes; L Hughes, Burgess.


DICKOV on Chesterfield:

"They are a threat going forward, as we saw at Boundary Park (a game Athletic won 5-2).

"They played ever so well at Huddersfield on Boxing Day and were unlucky to lose 1-0. It is going to be a tough game for us.

"When a team has beaten you and scored four or five, you want to put it right.

"They will want to do that, just as we want to put the Hartlepool game right, starting with Notts County."