Philliskirk gets his point across

TONY Philliskirk will tonight invoke the same message he preached to Athletic’s first team a decade ago — let the opposition worry about us, not the other way around.

Yeovil have five wins in a row and arrive at Boundary Park primed for a npower League One play-off push. Three points will send Gary Johnson’s men into the top six.

Athletic, meanwhile, are perched close to the relegation zone and haven’t won a league game at Boundary Park since beating Shrewsbury 1-0 in November.

Philliskirk, who took charge of training yesterday with Paul Gerrard and Mick Priest assisting, is set to pick the team tonight and will offer similar advice to that he put forward when serving as assistant manager under Iain Dowie.

“We know fundamentally how Yeovil like to play. But while we need to know that for organisational purposes, I am a strong believer that it is about what we do, rather than others.

“When I worked back with Iain we were never overly concerned with the opposition. We will do our background work, but the emphasis is on what we can bring to the table.”

Athletic’s squad for tonight will be the same as for the 3-1 loss at Walsall — though captain Dean Furman will return after South Africa’s quarter-final exit from the African Cup of Nations. The former Rangers and Chelsea midfield anchorman is likely to stay on the bench.

Carl Winchester, who came off after an hour at the Banks’s Stadium, is back in contention for his place.

One change may be to move Cliff Byrne to right-back, with James Tarkowski’s return in place of Connor Brown.