As Athletic reach the half way stage of the season manager Paul Dickov has set his side a target of remaining unbeaten at Boundary Park for the remainder of the year. The manager said, “We have come a long way in a short space of time and things have gone well, though obviously we could have done even better. I am delighted with the way the boys have reacted when we have had setbacks and also their will to learn which, for me as a manager, is fantastic."
"They are not a hard bunch to manage because they try to do things to the best of their ability. There will be times when we make mistakes as we have seen and that happens at all football clubs. And when we have had bad results, I don't think anybody can say it was down to a lack of workrate, attitude or application. Sometimes things don't happen for you in matches.”
“We are sitting in a good position, but now we need to kick on. The teams who are going to be challenging for promotion at the end of the season are the ones who achieve the greater consistency. Apart from Brighton and more recently Southampton, nobody has achieved that. And it will be the teams who manage to find that consistency who will join them at the top. We need to get our home record back on track and I am challenging them to go unbeaten at home for the rest of the season. We reached New Year without a home league defeat and have shown we can do it.”