15th November 2000  

AWS out..... but who is in?

JOHN SHERIDAN steps up his Athletic comeback tonight when the reserves play at Burnley. Sheridan, who hasn’t featured in the first team since the opening day of the season, hopes to be back in senior action early next month. The former Republic of Ireland star is recovering from a knee operation which kept him on the sidelines for longer than expected. He suffers a painful reaction when the knee comes under stress but is desperate to return and provide a huge boost to improving Athletic. 

Sheridan played for 55 minutes last week when the reserves, whose programme has been badly affected by the weather, had a private game at Bolton. Tonight will be his first public outing since August, though Athletic’s recent form means they can afford to ease him back steadily. Barry Prenderville also plays in the Avon Insurance League fixture, again following a knee problem. The versatile Irishman, who has impressed both in defence and midfield, has been missing since late September. Mark Hotte is included in the squad as he recovers from a broken hand, while Andrew Holt may play a part following a thigh injury. Ryan Sugden, the 19-year-old striker with a prolific record at junior level, is again tried out at left wing-back. 

Reserves (from): Miskelly, Prenderville, Sugden, Jones, Futcher, McLaughlin, Salt, Sheridan, Boshell, Tipton, Froggatt, Hotte, Smith, Holt, Campbell. 

Carlo Corazzin is on international duty today as Canada entertain Mexico in a World Cup qualifier. The striker is expected back at Boundary Park later this week and, fitness permitting, will not miss Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Hednesford. 

Meanwhile, Faroe Islander Ossur Hansen has left the club after a frustrating trial spell. The midfield man was due to play in five reserve-team games, but postponements restricted him to two. Hansen may return later this season, while compatriot John Peterson - an international centre-forward - also hopes to have trials. 

Athletic still await the results of the scan Neil Adams had on his knee injury. But it looks certain that the winger, who was hurt at Stoke on Saturday, will be out for a month or more.

Teamtalk Oldham

The Football League have recently announced that the Second and Third Division knock-out competition, formerly the Auto Windscreen Shield, will have a new sponsor and negotiations are nearing completion and the League expect to be in a position to make a formal announcement later this week.

Arrangements have been made for the draw for the First Round of the competition to take place no later than Saturday 18th November but this will be confirmed once the sponsorship arrangements have been announced.

The format of this season's competition has been amended and will see the introduction of 8 Nationwide Conference clubs at the First Round stage. This will result in 8 Football League clubs (4 Northern/4 Southern sections) receiving byes through to the Second Round of the competition.

The First Round games will be played during week commencing the 4th December.

The 4 Nationwide Conference clubs in the Northern section are Chester City, Doncaster Rovers, Morecambe and Scarborough, and in the Southern section there are Dover Athletic, Hereford United, Rushden & Diamonds and Yeovil Town.

Latics youth coach Dave Cross was disappointed when last night's Lancashire FA Youth Cup game against Preston North End due to be played at Stalybridge was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. Cross said "The lads build themselves up for these cup games and really look forward to them, after all it is their equivalent of FA Cup and League Cup games and they want to go as far as possible in the competitions, then to continually lose fixtures because of the weather is a bit of a let-down". The youngsters must hope that the weather is kind over the next two days so that Thursday night's game in the AXA FA Youth Cup against Port Vale at Boundary Park can proceed as planned at 7.45 pm
 

TEAMtalk Burnley

Burnley's reserves will be hoping to keep pace with the leaders of the Avon Insurance League Premier Division, when they entertain Oldham today. The second string will be hoping to continue their encouraging start to the season and are certainly not far off the pace. Several fringe players will be hoping to get the chance to impress as they look to get back into the senior squad. That will mean starts for the likes of Chris Brass, Chris Scott, Matty Heywood and Brad Maylett. All have been integral parts of the first team at various stages in Ternent's reign but have been frozen out over the last 12 months. Brass and Scott have recently been out on loan and could depart again as Ternent tries to keep them match fit. Heywood remains skipper of the second string and acts as back up to the regular trio of first team defenders whilst Maylett has recently been included in a couple of first team squads without making it off the bench. They are likely to feature alongside first teamers Ronnie Jepson, John Mullin, Andy Cooke and Paul Weller who all only played restricted roles in the weekend win over Sheffield United.