Will to win at heart of ‘biggest’ contest

NO CLUB in the lower two divisions of the Football League has attacked the Johnstone's Paint Trophy with anything close to Athletic's hunger this season.

The disaster of Paul Dickov's first attempt at this competition — a fairly awful 1-0 defeat to Shrewsbury, in keeping with a miserable record of previous years — and a joyless run elsewhere of no wins in the other two knock-out games in the Carling and FA Cups only increased the Scot's drive for success.

Despite a gruelling trip to Exeter three days earlier, only one change was made to the Athletic line-up for the visit to Scunthorpe in the second-round tie in October. Dickov's side had received a bye through the first stage.

Contrast the no-half-measures approach of Athletic with that of Sheffield Wednesday.

Manager Gary Megson's was content to go through the motions in the JPT, exiting at the first opportunity in a penalty shoot-out at Bradford after fielding a team paying lip service to the 'six regulars' rule before making it even flimsier through the substitution of first-choice goalkeeper Nicky Weaver after only 90 seconds.

“No disrespect to the competition or Bradford — it’s fantastic that Johnstone’s Paint sponsor the competition — but we have to do what is right for Sheffield Wednesday,” said Megson, who once infamously played a weakened Bolton line-up in one of the club's biggest fixtures of the modern era, a UEFA Cup last-16 tie at Sporting Lisbon, in order to rest players for a Premier League clash at Wigan, three days later. Bolton lost both games 1-0.

In fairness, Megson may well have benefited from having no forks in the road on his planned path up to the npower Championship. Wednesday are currently fourth and look well-equipped for a shot at automatic promotion.

Chesterfield, Athletic's opponents in Monday's forthcoming Northern final second-leg tie at Boundary Park, were — at least, up to last week's 2-1 first-leg victory on home soil — themselves focusing more-or-less exclusively on the league campaign and a battle to maintain their status.

Without wishing to tempt fate, Athletic have not had such worries.

For Dickov, the line where the JPT starts providing hope that the lucrative and prestigious prize at the end of the journey can be attained has long since been crossed.

And for Athletic chairman Simon Corney, an appearance at Wembley is not merely about the £400,000-plus prize it could feasibly feed into the club's famished coffers.

It also significantly embellishes what has, Liverpool trip apart, been a disappointing campaign.

Play-off semi-finals against Blackpool and a pair of FA Cup ties against the big Merseyside clubs are one thing in the career of the last remaining board member of the three New York-based businessmen who saved the club in 2004.

But when the prospect of playing a one-off game against a League Two club, for siverware, is only 90 minutes away, the must-win Chesterfield clash eclipses everything with its importance.

"It is a huge game, a massive one for us," Corney said. "It is probably the biggest since I have been at the club. The manager is confident we will make it to Wembley and I am confident we will do it. We just have to hope.

"I don't want to talk about it only in financial terms. It is the prestige that comes with possibly winning a trophy. The finance is also important though — it would be a very big deal."

Unhappy with the performance he witnessed at Chesterfield's new B2net Stadium last week, Corney will hope that Athletic's players match his, and his manager's, passion on the field.

"There were three or four who let themselves down," he added. "Chesterfield are fighting for their lives and everyone knows how important it is for both clubs.

"They had 11 players who were battling and fighting for everything and we didn't — and when that happens, you are going to lose games. They are no mugs and are great going forward. But having said that, I believe we have enough talent to beat them in the second leg."