Jones and Winchester under starter’s orders against Blades

CARL WINCHESTER . . . the midfield man, pictured playing against Sheffield United in October, is set to start on Saturday.

LAST season’s most heralded duo, Mike Jones and Carl Winchester, are in line for recalls as Athletic bid to make it into round three of the FA Cup.

Manager David Dunn has promised to ring the changes for his team’s second-round visit to league rivals Sheffield United — a game important not least because of the £27,000 prize to sides making it into the next stage. That’s almost a week’s wages for a squad that has recently had its pay day delayed by club cashflow problems.

In a bid to fire the team to a victory, Dunn is set to call on two men who picked up awards last season.

Energetic midfield man Jones, the player’s player of the season for 2014-15, could step back in. Jones — scorer of a superb goal in Athletic’s victory at Swindon in October — has only featured once since that night, in the 0-0 draw at Rochdale, due to an ankle injury.

Winchester, who picked up the fans’ prize as the stand-out performer last time around, is also expected to be recalled after sitting out the last four games. His last outing was in the 2-1 win at Chesterfield.

Dunn accepts that the 22-year-old midfield man can consider himself unfortunate not to have featured recently, though the Northern Ireland international will be determined to put forward an irrefutable case at Bramall Lane for continued inclusion.

Athletic hope to tie up a deal to keep right-back Cameron Dummigan on at the club and he could step back into the starting line-up.

With on-loan Blades man Michael Higdon ineligible, Jake Cassidy could start up front for the first time since sustaining a serious leg injury back in August.