Young guns’ chance to shine

Carl Winchester: the Northern Ireland under-21 star is set to replace Dean Furman for tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie at Chesterfield.

CARL Winchester will start for Athletic at Chesterfield tonight - and there could also be a first chance of the season for his international team-mate Kirk Millar.

While Dean Furman is away on South Africa duty, the Northern Ireland under-21 duo has been given permission to link up with coach Stephen Robinson tomorrow, so they can play in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy first-round tie against the holders (7pm kick-off).

“It gives Carl a chance to come in and play some football,” said Athletic manager Paul Dickov, who could pair Winchester with Youssouf Mchangama in the centre of midfield.

“Kirk has played in there recently and done well too. There is a chance both of them will play.

“There will be a couple of changes, but we will still be putting a strong team out.

“It is a competition which gives us a realistic chance of success and a trip to Wembley we narrowly missed out on last year.”

Matt Smith is also set to make a rare start up front in place of loan man Jordan Slew.

Whether Cliff Byrne takes his place in tonight’s line-up remain unclear. Athletic were today waiting to hear if they had won an FA appeal over the Byrne’s red card at Portsmouth on the basis of mistaken identity.

If the plea was successful then team-mate Connor Brown, the real culprit in the incident, would sit out the next three first-team games through suspension.

If Byrne was free to play tonight, he would probably take up the right-back slot with James Tarkowski recalled to the centre of defence.