28th September 1999
28th September 1999 RICHARD GRAHAM and Stuart Thom continue their Athletic comebacks tonight when they play for the reserves at home to Tranmere.
The defensive duo both lasted the full 90 minutes at Reading on Saturday, but they are short of full fitness and will play for around an hour in a bid to sharpen up. Graham moves into midfield to ensure he is at the heart of the action and gaining maximum benefit from his run out. He is then expected to drop back into defence for the second division match against Notts County on Saturday.
Craig Dudley, who made his Athletic debut at the weekend, shows his versatility by making the switch from centre-forward to right wing-back. The front pairing of Ryan Sugden and David McNiven will be out to earn recalls after recently falling out of favour. There is no place for Steve Whitehall, Shaun Garnett or full-back Jordan Tait, who has a slight groin strain. The Pontins League fixture has come a little too early for Whitehall and Garnett, but both are hoping to come back into the reckoning for Saturday. After the heavy downpours of the last few days, Athletic advise fans to check that the match is still on before setting off to Boundary Park. David Miskelly, Athletic's number two goalkeeper, is on standby for Northern Ireland's under-21 game in Finland next week. Miskelly was named man of the match against France last month, so it is a surprising decision to leave him out of the main squad. If he is called up for the Euro 2000 qualifier, he will miss Athletic's home clash with Luton. Matthew Tipton, who has caps for Wales under-21s, missed out on the squad for the qualifier against Switzerland.
AFTER dipping his recently-broken toe into the waters of league football, Stuart Thom is ready take the plunge with both feet. The towering defender has made big strides since Athletic spotted him in Nottingham Forest’s reserves and he believes there is plenty more to come. Thom was never given a chance at Forest, where he started as a trainee at the age of 16. Before he arrived at Boundary Park in October last year, his only experience of a standard above the Pontins League was a five-match loan spell with Mansfield. The 22-year-old joined Athletic on a similar basis and, within three weeks, made an impact deep enough to earn a permanent transfer. At face value, the fee of £40,000 was of no great significance by modern standards.
But Athletic were using up virtually all their transfer kitty in one fell swoop, so Thom must have been viewed as an integral member of the club’s future plans. He was thrown straight in at the deep end and admits he is still acclimatising to his new environment. “I’d been playing a different type of game,” he said. “It wasn’t as fast or as physical and the step up from the reserves was quite a big one. “But it’s good to be playing first-team football. I’m enjoying the experience, enjoying the challenge and learning all the time.” Thom had his longest run in the team during the second half of last season when Athletic were trying to perfect the sweeper system. The success of similar tactics at Reading on Saturday makes them likely to persevere with that gameplan in the next few weeks. Thom, however, believes flexibility is an important factor. He said: “We looked pretty solid and stopped Reading from creating many chances. “I’m quite happy playing either way — with or without the sweeper — but I think you have to change the system according to the match. “It was good to have Richard Graham in the side as well. He is a good lad and he did well.
“The two of us are in a similar situation because we are both trying to get our fitness back by playing in the first team.” Thom, whose quietly-spoken nature belies on-field tenacity, suffered his broken toe at Stockport in his first game of the season. It was a painful blow and he was forced to miss the next six matches. “It still doesn’t feel quite right, even though I’ve played two games in the first team and a couple in the reserves,” Thom admitted. “Fitness will comes with games, but I’ve had to come back early because of the situation with Shaun Garnett. “If Garno had been fit, there would have been much more time for me to get everything right before I played again. “I would have been easing my way back in over the course of about three weeks, but his injury meant there was no time for that.”