Show me what you’re made of!
Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date published: 01 February 2012
DESPAIR: Robbie Simpson and his team-mates must recover from their disappointment.
SIMON Corney has urged Athletic's players to quickly recover from their crushing disappointment of not reaching Wembley.
The failure this week to get past Chesterfield and into the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final was, in the chairman's view, mainly down to failures in the first leg of the Northern final, in which a sub-par performance left Athletic 2-1 behind and with it all to do.
A late Jack Lester goal at Boundary Park then sealed the fate of manager Paul Dickov's side.
But amid a poor run of form — Athletic haven't yet won in 2012 and have picked up three points only once in their last eight npower League One fixtures — it is important that the gloom lifts quickly.
"It is a big test for Paul and a big test for the players now," said Corney, who reckons that a Wembley victory would have been worth £500,000 – including prize money half of the club's predicted losses for the season – to Athletic.
"It is a big game for us in three days' time against Leyton Orient at Boundary Park and we need to win at home.
"We have to start winning games. Last season, we only won two of our final 19 games and a similar run now would leave us in trouble.
"At the moment we are on a run of only two wins in 10 matches. To improve our form, we need to get back to scoring goals. We were unlucky against Chesterfield on the night and in my opinion, the tie was lost over there. If we had gone out in the first leg with the same attitude we showed in the second game, I believe we would have made it through.
"The fans were fantastic and very supportive, as they have been all season. We couldn't have asked for much more and they deserved us to get to Wembley.
"And with some of our chances, they could just as easily have gone in as miss. But we move on."
Midfielder Tom Adeyemi will line up against Orient at Boundary Park, after extending his loan deal.
The Norwich midfielder, who has scored three times in his 29 appearances to date, stays with Athletic until March 10, a busy period packing in 10 games.
The only other activity on a quiet deadline day saw striker Ryan Brooke move on loan to Blue Square Bet Premier outfit AFC Telford.
The 21-year-old striker had a similar loan spell in the same division at Barrow earlier this season, though this time around it is hoped he will get more time on the pitch.
REUBEN Reid was forced to withdraw from Athletic’s reserves squad travelling to Manchester United today due to an ongoing injury concern.
The striker is still having problems with the badly-torn thigh muscle which has kept him out of action for three months.
In the squad for the Manchester Premier Cup tie, which was played behind closed at Carrington, was new signing Keanu Marsh-Brown.
FORMER Athletic trainee Kallum Higginbotham has signed for Huddersfield Town.
The 22-year-old striker, who has been impressing for Scottish First Division side Falkirk, has moved to the Galpharm Stadium for what the Bairns are describing as a “six-figure sum”.
