Dickov’s ‘softly softly’ approach

REUBEN REID . . . the striker made a great impact on his return to Athletic first-team action.

Manager will ‘look after’ Latics stars

PAUL Dickov will treat his fragile stars with kid gloves over the next few games.

Reuben Reid returned from the substitutes’ bench at Sheffield United, registering his first appearance in the first team since picking up a thigh injury in mid-October.

The striker performed admirably after being introduced in the 73rd minute, causing severe difficulties for the Blades defence before winning the injury-time penalty which was converted by Shefki Kuqi to hand Athletic a third win in five npower League One matches.

Keanu Marsh-Brown was another to impress. Despite scoring in the draw with Colchester four days earlier, the young winger was handed a bench role.

He used his pace and trickery to torture a heaving, depleted home defence after arriving on the pitch for the start of the second half.

With Scunthorpe travelling to Boundary Park tonight (7.45pm kick-off), though, Dickov is inclined to act cautiously over the pair.

“We have got to be a little bit careful with Reuben,” said the Athletic manager, hunting down a win which could push his side as high as ninth in the table.

“We are desperate to get him back in the fold. After Saturday, coming on and having the big impact he did, there is obviously a big push for me to start him.

“But he has been out for a long time and has had a couple of setbacks as well.

“We will have to look after him, with all the games we have got coming up.

“But I thought he was fantastic and made a real impact after coming on.

“Keanu is possibly similar in that we have to look after him.

“I am not saying we can afford to pick and choose when to play him, but he can make a real impact coming off the bench.

“We possibly have to look at the opposition, look at Keanu and work out the right time to start him.”

As far as Dickov is concerned, the goal now is to capitalise on the benefits of the victory at the weekend to gain a back-to-back sequence of league wins for the first time since September.

“If we can't take belief from Saturday, then I honestly don’t know where we are going to get it from,” added the manager, who has yet to taste victory in a midweek league game following on from a win at the weekend.

“We have two tough home games coming up, but I believe we are good enough to win both.

“We have 15 games left and we are sitting in a decent position. I don’t want to be sitting constantly looking over my shoulder.”

Dickov is not looking at this Saturday’s home clash with Yeovil yet, given the task he faces of overcoming a Scunthorpe side buzzing from a 4-1 home win against Wycombe at the weekend.

“Alan Knill has some really good players and a strong squad,” Dickov said of his opposite number, whose side are currently 18th.

“I feel they are in a bit of a false position and play some great football.

“It is up to us to get a good result — hopefully, on the back of a big crowd after the Sheffield United result.”