14th November 2000  

Youth game off

ATHLETIC’S injury problems are improving quickly, with four more players set to be given the all-clear. Following John Sheridan’s return in a private friendly last week, winger Neil Adams will soon be the only senior absentee. Adams twisted his knee at Stoke on Saturday and is currently using crutches as a precaution. The knee is also strapped up as he tries to avoid putting weight on it. The veteran saw a specialist yesterday, but the extent of his injury will not be known until a scan is carried out. Adams definitely misses Saturday’s FA Cup first-round tie at Hednesford and is likely to be out for at least three weeks. But there is better news for team-mates Tony Carss, Mark Hotte, Andrew Holt and Danny Walsh. Carss has been carrying a groin strain for the last two weeks, but concern is lifting and the 24-year-old can continue in midfield. 

Hotte, who has missed three games with a broken hand, is back in full training and should soon be able to play with a special cast. The defender has been fitted for a splint similar to Shaun Garnett’s and hopes to return in the reserve-team match at Burnley tomorrow. After missing the Stoke game, Holt is also pencilled in for an outing tomorrow night as his thigh injury is improving. And Walsh, the 22-year-old reserve midfielder, should be ready for full training by the weekend. He has been plagued by injury and illness in recent months, with his latest setback being a knee-ligament problem. 

HOT-SHOT Lee Duxbury is aiming for his best-ever goals tally this season after taking over as Athletic’s top scorer. The midfielder’s winner at Stoke on Saturday moved him on to four — one ahead of his closest rivals — and kept him on course to beat a personal record of 12. Duxbury always sets himself a double-figure target and, in terms of his goals-to-chances ratio, is currently teaching the strikers a lesson. While Carlo Corazzin, Craig Dudley and Mark Allott have all been misfiring in front of goal, the skipper is proving deadly around the box. Duxbury said: “I’m not a natural goalscorer, but I’ll always chip in with my share. I average about a goal every 10 games and, including the cups, I’ve got about 70 in my career. “It’s nice to be top scorer and it makes a change because you don’t get as many chances when you play in midfield. “I do look for about 10 goals a year, but I’m sure the forwards will be passing me soon.

“If the team was going really well, you would expect someone to be in double figures by now because all the top sides have someone with that sort of total. “But if Craig Dudley keeps doing his job well and he gets a lucky break, they will probably start flying in for him. “And Carlo Corazzin hasn’t been on the scoresheet for a while, but he is a proven player and these things happen. “It’s okay for people to say a centre-forward’s job is to score goals, but they might not realise how hard he works. Carlo is as brave as a lion.” Duxbury has a personal duel every season with one of his closest friends in football, Paul Reid. The year he hit 12 for Bradford, Reid — the former Athletic midfielder now with Bury — pipped him at the post with 13. But Duxbury’s game is about much more than finding the net. In three and a half years at the club, the £350,000 signing — who is easily the most expensive player on Athletic’s books — has become indispensable.

Duxbury leads by example and believes personal standards should be vital to every player. He explained: “You have indifferent games but, when we were doing badly, I decided I would be okay if I could come off the pitch and look myself in the mirror. “If everyone can do that, you won’t go far wrong. In fact, if the team wins but I don’t feel satisfied with my own performance, I’m never really happy. “I’m even like that during the week — if I have a stinker in training, I go home in a bad mood. “I know my capabilities and I stick to them. I try to play to my strengths and give the ball to the lads who are good on it.” 

The 31-year-old has forged a strong central partnership with recent signing Tony Carss, who was an apprentice at Bradford when  Duxbury was captain. Duxbury revealed: “Tony says he used to clean my boots, but I don’t remember that. “What I do know is he is an honest player who works hard and has some skill. We work quite well together. “Tony and David Eyres keep winding the lads up because results have picked up since they arrived but, at the end of the day, it’s true. “And I think Mark Innes deserves major credit for the way he has fitted in at left-back. “When I was 22 like him, all I wanted to do was play in midfield and I was lucky enough to do it. “But he hasn’t moaned and groaned about being put at full-back. He has rolled his sleeves up, got on with the job and taken it on very well.”

Duxbury is often asked whether the captain’s armband, and all the responsibility which goes with it, gives him extra inspiration. He skippered Bradford at the tender age of 19 — evidence, surely, that he was always regarded as a natural leader. Yet the player himself insists the job is merely a bonus, a result of him simply following his instincts. He explained: “I’m quite good at passing on information and helping others out. It’s something I have done ever since I was at school. “And I wasn’t captain when I was at Huddersfield, but I still played exactly the same way. It didn’t matter to me. “I’m just the same as everyone else. If I hit a stray pass and a young lad like Danny Boshell has a go at me, I’ll hold my hands up and take it on the chin. “Things like that keep everyone on their toes. And it makes you more likely to keep up your standards — that’s the important thing.”

THE Auto Windscreens Shield will be back soon, with a new sponsor and a new name. The first-round draw is expected to be made this week for a tournament which gives second and third-division clubs the chance of a day out at Wembley. There has been a delay while new sponsorship is confirmed following the withdrawal of Auto Windscreens. Athletic have never won a match in the competition, going out on the golden-goal rule for the last three seasons. Stoke were their conquerors last time, with the Potteries side going on to lift the trophy with a 2-1 victory over Bristol City.

THE FA Cup often throws up strange twists of fate and this year’s first-round draw was no exception. In the Nationwide League division two on Saturday, Athletic played Stoke City. Meanwhile, in the Conference, Hednesford travelled to Nuneaton. This weekend, it is Hednesford versus Athletic and Stoke versus Nuneaton. No doubt scouts from all four clubs were working overtime in readiness for the big day.

Official Latics Web Site

After a 15.00 hrs pitch inspection at Bower Fold, Stalybridge, the Lancashire FA Youth Cup tie against Preston North End has been postponed.

No new date has yet been fixed.