Point to prove

TONIGHT’S Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie with Notts County at Boundary Park offers Athletic a quick chance to secure a bit of redemption.

A fortnight ago Athletic visited Meadow Lane in Sky Bet League One, and were beaten 3-2 by the division’s bottom side on a miserable night.

The Magpies head North now for a Trophy northern section quarter-final clash with new manager Shaun Derry having been installed last week, and Athletic’s management have demanded improvements following that shock defeat.

Goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms said: “There was no possibly about it, it was definitely our worst performance of the season, both individually and as a team.

“So we’ve definitely got to improve on that showing.

“We did learn a lot from that defeat, particularly about ourselves.

“They’re obviously a different opposition now in that they’ve got a new manager.

“They were between managers when we went there the other week so maybe some were keen to put down a marker with a new man set to come in, and they’ll want to carry that on tonight.

“They lost at Hartlepool in the FA Cup, but they are getting things going a bit themselves now and it’s never easy in the North-East.

“We’ll be ready and organised, though, and I can assure everyone that we will perform better than we did that evening a fortnight ago.

“When we play properly – moving the ball and using the pace offered by our athletes in the team – we look good.”

Although loan defender Joseph Mills was unavailable for Saturday’s FA Cup tie with Wolves – and Burnley won’t allow him to feature in next week’s first-round replay – he can play in tonight’s knock-out tie so will be in the reckoning to start.

Also being primed is full-back Connor Brown, whose knee injury woes appear to be behind him as he was on the bench on Saturday.

Kirk Millar and Carl Winchester are away with the Northern Ireland under-21 squad, while Edijs Joksts is on Latvia under-21s duty.

Athletic (from) – Oxley, Kusunga, Tarkowski, Mills, Grounds, Mellor, Dayton, Smith, Wesolowski, Philliskirk, Rooney, Clarke-Harris, Montano, Schmeltz, Rodgers, Bove, Truelove, Rachubka.

Notts County (from) – Bialkowski, Sheehan, Grealish, Arquin, Liddle, Leacock, McGregor, Labadie, Fotheringham, Thompson, Campbell-Ryce, Smith, Showunmi, Haworth, Murray, Speiss, Tempest, Boucaud, Haber.

ATHLETIC’S scheduled Sky Bet League One home clash against MK Dons on Saturday has been postponed.

The Football League has sanctioned the cancellation, which came at Athletic’s request as three players are on international duty.

Winchester and Millar are away with Northern Ireland, while Joksts will still be with Latvia.

No new date for the fixture has been agreed.