Latics ready to cut down Blades

Simon Corney: nothing for us to fear in this division

EVEN a fixture as difficult as Sheffield United away shouldn’t hold any fears for this Athletic squad.

Bramall Lane, venue of the amazing 3-2 comeback victory last term, is the destination on Saturday as Paul Dickov bids to register three successive league wins for only the second time as a manager.

The well-fancied Blades are unbeaten in 11 npower League One matches, sitting third and six points adrift of Tranmere at the top.

Chairman Simon Corney was highly critical of Athletic’s players just a month ago. Now - having since sanctioned the arrivals of new trio Jose Baxter, Matt Derbyshire and Reece Wabara - he believes Athletic are strong and confident enough to harbour real hope of a Bramall Lane triumph.

“I genuinely wouldn’t swap our best XI for anyone else’s and I know it’s a cliché, but there is nothing for us to fear in this division,” said Corney, who will be present at a fans’ forum tomorrow evening.

“I said my piece about the players a few weeks ago and they responded. From what I heard, though I wasn’t at the game, we were unlucky against Coventry and at Crewe we got the result our performance merited.”

Athletic’s cause isn’t aided by the loss of skipper Dean Furman, who today flew to Poland to join his south African team colleagues ahead of Friday’s friendly clash in Poland.

Youssouf Mchangama appears to be the obvious replacement in midfield, with the less likely option being for Jose Baxter to drop back to allow Robbie Simpson to return to the side from the start.

Dickov is hopeful Jean-Yves Mvoto will have recovered from his ankle injury in time to make Saturday’s game.

If he is still out, Cliff Byrne and Reece Wabara have shown their competence as a makeshift defensive partnership.








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