Pacy Poleon’s strike chance

LIVEWIRE . . . Dominic Poleon impressed when he came on as a substitute at Crawley.

ATHLETIC could turn to Dominic Poleon and Jacob Mellis in a bid to inject firepower to the side facing Sheffield United on Saturday.

Manager Dean Holden, who will be without injured top scorer Jonathan Forte, admitted his team lacked a cutting edge around the opposition’s penalty area.

Poleon could feature from the start, either on the flank or down the middle, when Nigel Clough’s play-off chasers roll up to SportsDirect.com Park.

Mellis, whose last appearance was in the Valentine’s Day defeat to Colchester, may get the chance to inject creativity to Athletic’s line-up from the start.

Holden said of the Crawley defeat: “We threw Dom on down there and he had a bit of joy. It was also nice to see Jacob out there again.”

Sheffield United were in action last night and came from behind to take the honours in the South Yorkshire derby, beating Doncaster 3-2. It leaves Clough’s side fifth, with an eight-point buffer above Rochdale in seventh.

Athletic are 10 points adrift of the top six, seemingly out of the hunt. But Holden is determined to fight until the end of a season containing five more games.

“I don’t believe in chucking in the towel,” he said. “Are we in the hunt at the moment? No. But equally, a couple of results get you back knocking on the door. We have plenty to play for.”