25th January 2000
25th January 2000 JOHN SHERIDAN has signed a new contract to spend the rest of his career at Boundary Park. The midfield maestro, who was rescued from non-league football by Athletic boss Andy Ritchie, has repaid that faith by agreeing to stay until the end of next season — or even beyond. It is a massive boost for Athletic as the former Republic of Ireland star is easily their most influential player. He will be close to 37 when the new deal runs out, but Athletic have added a clause which could keep him at the club until the summer of 2002. Ritchie said: "John has signed a 12-month extension, with an option for another 12 months after that. Obviously his age and fitness by that stage were the reasons we didn't go for a straight two years. But he was keen to stay and I'm delighted to have him. You only have to look at the way he has been playing to know the reasons for that. "We had a long chat and John thinks we are a good side in the making. He enjoys the training and thinks we have a decent set of lads here. It's great to have someone of his standing because the rest of the players really look up to him. They hold him in great esteem. "I speak to a lot of other managers and they always say John Sheridan is different class. People just purr about his quality."
Sheridan,
who has 34 international caps, has also played for Leeds — where he was
a team-mate of Ritchie — Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton. He was playing
for Conference club Doncaster early last season when Athletic brought him
in and, quite possibly, plucked him from the soccer scrapheap. Ritchie
added: "I'm not surprised by the quality he has shown, but I wasn't expecting
him to make the impression he has. That's purely because nobody else had
tried to get hold of him at Doncaster. I knew what a good player he had
been, but it does stay in the back of your mind when other people seem
reluctant." Sheridan (35), Athletic's
reigning player of the year, has been a virtual ever-present since arriving
at Boundary Park. He has already clocked up 65 appearances for Athletic,
scoring four goals.
Ritchie’s
men reach vital stage of season
PLAY-OFFS,
mid-table security or back in the relegation quagmire? The
rest of Athletic’s season could hinge on the Dirty Half-Dozen — six up-coming
matches which will severely test their physical and mental toughness. After
Saturday’s defeat at Burnley, Andy Ritchie’s side have 34 points from 27
matches and are caught in the No Man’s Land between top of the table and
bottom. They have performed a minor miracle
to get where they are today but, as so many clubs in a similar position
have found, the hard work is far from over. Seventy
points might just be enough to squeeze into the top six and earn a shot
at promotion via a Wembley final. But,
in such a tight division, it could also require 52 points simply to avoid
the dreaded drop. Those next six fixtures
begin with a home game against Oxford on Saturday. That
may look pretty straightforward, but Athletic will be coming off their
worst performance for weeks and must make sure they don’t slip into old
habits. They then move into Fateful February,
when it is Millwall (away), Gillingham (home), Wrexham (away), Wigan (home)
and Bristol Rovers (home).
Three
of those sides were picked out by Andy Ritchie as the ones most likely
to go up, while another is steering a course towards the play-offs. With
Oxford and Wrexham fighting tooth and nail at the bottom of the table,
every game will be treated like a cup final. Ritchie
— ever the pragmatist — has always refused to discuss Athletic’s chance
of reaching the play-offs. There is
a fine line between quiet optimism and rash over-confidence. The manager,
quite rightly, does not want to cross it. Although
speculation has been mounting among fans (or was before Burnley brought
people back down to earth), Athletic would have to improve even on their
form of the last three months to stand a chance of making the top six. In
their last 19 games, they have taken 30 points. An
identical return from the 19 still to come would give them a total of 64
— enough to earn a big pat on the back but, unless this season is a complete
one-off, nothing more than that. Put
in simple terms, they probably have to win a dozen more games to be sure
of finishing in the top six. That is
a tough task by any standards and, given the imminent fixture programme,
surely too much to ask. But, barring
an unlikely collapse, they should at least be safe from another battle
against relegation. Two vital assets
to any football team are confidence and momentum.
Both
can be lost in the time it takes to miss a penalty or score an own goal
but, despite their weekend setback, Athletic should not be founding wanting
in either department. The most likely
outcome, therefore, is a finish somewhere around mid-table and, after last
year’s tribulations, that would be a sizeable achievement for Ritchie and
his men.
Wizards
of Aus following the road to riches
ATHLETIC’S
latest trialists are out to join the growing band of Australians who make
a living from the English game. Kon Antoniou
and Peter Mihalopoulos stepped straight from the searing heat of an Aussie
summer and will spend two weeks trying their luck at Boundary Park. Acclimatisation
and jetlag are the first major obstacles for the pair, who left Adelaide
when temperatures were climbing over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. They
also had to contend with an overnight stay in the Malaysian capital, Kuala
Lumpur, on their way to the depths of the English winter. Provided
their clearance comes through in time, they will now play two matches for
Athletic’s reserves in the hope of landing their first professional contracts. Antoniou
is currently studying to be a draftsman, while Mihalopoulos divides his
time between science studies and working in a fish factory.
Australia
is one of the world’s greatest sporting hotbeds, with cricket, tennis,
swimming, Aussie Rules Football and both codes of rugby all vying for youngsters’
attention. But soccer is increasingly
popular, thanks partly to the success of the country’s exiles. A
number of Australians play in the English leagues, led by Manchester United’s
Mark Bosnich and Leeds whizz-kid Harry Kewell. Other
stars from Down Under include Stan Lazaridis (Birmingham), Mark Schwarzer
(Middlesbrough), John Aloisi (Coventry), Steve Corica (Wolves) and John
Filan (Blackburn). It is those trailblazers
that Athletic’s long-distance travellers are aiming to emulate. Antoniou
(22) is a tall central defender, 20-year-old Mihalopoulos a stocky striker
and both men — who hold Greek passports thanks to their parentage — are
out of contract with their club in the South Australian League.
Antoniou
said: “English soccer is huge in Australia and we would love to break into
it. “It would be great to do that with
Oldham because the club seems to be run very professionally — there is
nothing like this back home. The game in Australia is very different. It’s
played much more on the ground and goes more through midfield. We went
to watch Oldham at Burnley on Saturday and quite a few long balls were
played out from the back. “One of the
reasons for the pace of the Aussie game is probably the climate. You can’t
just run all day when you’re playing in the heat. But it’s also a multi-cultural
place. There are a lot of different nationalities and all those contrasting
styles have to come together into one. “It’s
better to go from a passing game to a long-ball game because it’s easier
to adjust that way, rather than vice versa. And it’s the same switching
from heat t cold. All I can say about the weather over here is that it’s
pretty fresh and you get plenty of oxygen.”
PRICE
WISE
ATHLETIC
are continuing to raise the stakes for in-demand defenders Andrew Holt
and Scott McNiven. The talented 21-year-olds
have attracted scouts from Glasgow Celtic and Liverpool this season, with
Celtic’s interest in Holt particularly strong. Athletic
insist that, in the current climate, they would want around £1million
each for their young stars. It is 18
months since they sold Carl Serrant to Newcastle for £600,000 and
the market has inflated even further since then. Athletic
argue that untried players sell for sky-high fees, but both Holt and McNiven
now have plenty of experience. Being
a left-sided defender, Holt is an especially rare commodity in the British
game as a whole. Recently, Boundary
Park officials have been stressing that they don’t need to sell any member
of their squad. The financial situation
isn’t desperate at the moment, but it’s hard to imagine them refusing a
massive windfall, particularly as manager Andy Ritchie is still keen to
bring in the most expensive item of all — a striker. The
pair have missed only one game all season between them and Holt is fast
approaching the first major landmark of his career. If
the abandoned Auto Windscreens Shield tie with Stoke is kept in the records,
this weekend’s match with Oxford will be Holt’s 100th senior appearance
for Athletic.