Wesolowski adapts style to new role

James Wesolowski (right) takes on Mark Allott in the Johnstone’s Paint Northern Area final.

JAMES Wesolowski admits he has tempered his usual action-packed style of playing to accommodate an injured shoulder.

While awaiting surgery to correct the problem, the highly influential midfielder successfully adapted his game in the Chesterfield defeat last week.

Rather than flying into challenges, in order to protect a shoulder which has dislocated twice inside a month, the

24-year-old acted as a midfield pivot — the role usually taken by injured captain Dean Furman.

And despite losing the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie, Wesolowski believes he is part of a team close to getting things right.

“Obviously, I was a bit tentative with the shoulder and couldn’t go flying around like I would normally do,” said the former Leicester City and Peterborough United player, who lasted 81 minutes of the 1-0 second-leg defeat at Boundary Park before being replaced by Matt Smith as Athletic desperately tried to find a breakthrough.

“I changed my game a little bit to hold my position. I played more of a passing game and let Tom Adeyemi do most of the ratting about.

“We weren’t happy with the result against Chesterfield, which was the most important thing on the night.

“But we put in a good performance. I think you can see that we are playing well and it is just a case of getting the goals to kill teams off.”

Wesolowski will form part of the squad which travels to face Stevenage tomorrow night, weather permitting.

Stevenage are in the last play-off place and with a healthy goal-difference advantage on all the sides below.

Goals continue to be a problem for Athletic, with three blanks in the last four fixtures in league and cup.

“We were definitely the better team against Chesterfield,” Wesolowski added.

“I know stats aren’t important in that the game is all about goals, but we had 47 shots over the two legs and you expect more than one (which was scored by Robbie Simpson at the B2net Stadium).

“It is something we need to improve on.

“It was a weird one in the dressing room afterwards. Everyone was gutted, but we knew we had given everything we could.

“We have a big chance now to get a few wins together and push up the league, which is the priority.”