29th December 2000  

8am inspection for Saddler's visit

JOHN SHERIDAN is winning his fitness battle and hopes to inspire Athletic to another festive treat tomorrow. The former international, who has been doubtful all week for the home game against Walsall, is recovering well from his knee problem. In the Boxing Day victory over Wigan, Sheridan's clever midfield play helped Athletic beat one of the top sides in division two. He also hurt his knee, but manager Andy Ritchie is confident that the veteran will face second-placed Walsall. "John seems okay today," Ritchie said. "We'll monitor it until tomorrow morning, but he's usually fine once the problem eases. "This will be a very hard game and we want as many people as possible to be fit and available. "No decisions have been made on the way we'll play yet. We have one or two options open to us, so it will probably be left until later tonight."

If Sheridan doesn't make it, his most likely replacements in the middle are Oldham-born Phil Salt and transfer-listed Mark Innes. Innes has been a big hit at left-back recently, but he was dropped against Wigan as Ritchie switched to a sweeper system. Danny Boshell is suspended, but fellow youngster Ryan Sugden is in the squad after scoring four times in a reserve-team friendly this week. 

ATHLETIC (from): Kelly, McNiven, Garnett, Hotte, Rickers, Eyres, Duxbury, Sheridan, Carss, Corazzin, Allott, Innes, Holt, Tipton, Salt, Sugden, Miskelly.

Walsall are clinging to an automatic promotion place despite a wretched run of only one point from five away games. Jamaican international Paul Hall should be back in the team, while former Barcelona star Ronnie Ekelund is set to be on the bench.

WALSALL (from): Walker, Brightwell, Barrass, Tillson, Aranalde, Hall, Bukran, Bennett, Matias, Leitao, Angell, Byfield, Wrack, Emberson, Keates, Ekelund, Roper, Gadsby. 

RAY GRAYDON was as downcast a manager as you could imagine this week as he prepared his Walsall side for tomorrow’s trip to Athletic. It’s hard to say whether Graydon was indulging in mind games or speaking from the heart, but you don’t often hear a promotion-chasing boss admit: “I’m not confident, you know — more worried than anything.” A look at the second division table suggests Walsall have plenty to smile about as they end a year of depressing downs and optimistic ups. They began 2000 next to bottom of division one and failed by four points to avoid a widely-predicted relegation. Tomorrow, however, they will arrive at Boundary Park with automatic promotion very much in their sights. The Saddlers are second behind Millwall, score goals like they are going out of fashion and face an Athletic side who, having beaten Wigan, face the difficult task of playing close to their peak for the second time in five days. Not that any of those factors persuade Graydon to cheer up at this festive time of year.

He is concerned about Walsall’s away results which, following the Boxing Day reverse at lowly Swansea, involve more defeats (five) than victories (four). Graydon said: “Our away form hasn’t been very good of late and it’s the one thing letting us down. “Obviously we want to put that right against Oldham, but they will be buoyed by their wonderful victory over Wigan. “Oldham are a better side than Swansea, so the form book says they shouldn’t have a problem beating us. “I’m not a confident person anyway, but at the moment I’d say I was just struggling along. “I don’t know what the problem is in away games — maybe I have too many attacking players in the side. “But we always keep the same system no matter what, so I’m not going to start changing it after two and a half years. “I’ve been rotating my squad in the last few weeks, trying to keep everyone’s legs as fresh as possible. “We have been doing reasonably well, but the pattern is the same — we usually play better than the home team and create the better chances, but we just don’t put them away. “Oldham did us a favour by beating Wigan because the top teams losing will help us stay amongst it. “But, like Oldham, we are quite a small club who can’t spend much money, so it has been a fantastic couple of years.”

Two seasons ago, Graydon began his Walsall reign by beating Manchester City to the automatic promotion place behind Fulham. While the bigger clubs went on to better things, the modest Midlanders found themselves straight back in the lower divisions. They were among the favourites for promotion this season, a status Graydon was playing down from the start. Despite the lofty position, he still insists: “You set your sights as high as possible, but even reaching the play-offs would be a great achievement.” One of the bonuses for Walsall has been the impact made by their gallery of new faces. Eight players arrived in the summer and, illustrating how well they have settled, all of them are fixtures in the first-team squad. After losing Mark Robins and Michael Ricketts — strikers who took their scoring instincts to Rotherham and Bolton respectively — a whole new front-line was needed at the Bescot Stadium. So Graydon signed three centre-forwards in Aston Villa’s Darren Byfield, Stockport’s Brett Angell and the little-known Portuguese player Jorge Leitao. All have been regular scorers, though the rotation system means one of them missing out in every game. At Swansea it was Leitao. But, as he has been the biggest success story of the three, Athletic could end 2000 by facing Walsall’s 11-goal top scorer from the start.

UNLESS both clubs go far in the LDV Vans Trophy, Athletic’s New Year’s Day fixture will be the fourth and final part of their series against Peterborough. So far, Posh have remained unbeaten thanks to a 4-1 league win at Boundary Park and the two FA Cup ties which brought a 1-1 home draw and 1-0 success in the replay.

Over 50 supporters have responded to our plea for help to remove the snow from the Boundary Park covers tomorrow morning. The helpers will report to Boundary Park at 9am if Michael Jones the match referee gives the clear for the match to go ahead after his 8am pitch inspection.

With temperatures plummeting to -9c tonight club officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the frost covers and the layer of snow manage to keep the frost out of the pitch.

HELP REQUIRED

Latics are looking for helpers to clear snow from the Boundary Park frost covers on Saturday morning if the match Referee gives the go-ahead.

The Referee will inspect the surface that has been protected by frost covers since Tuesday at 8 am on Saturday. If he feels everything is fine then helpers will be required from 9 am to clear the snow.

If you are aged 19 or over and able to help please phone Judith at the club on 0161 624 4972 to register and then ring again at 8.30 am on Saturday morning to confirm that the match Referee has passed the pitch fit.

Snow clearer's will be rewarded with a complimentary £15 match ticket.

SECRETS ARE REVEALED

Former Latics player Ian Marshall has recently revealed one or two of his close kept secrets. Marshy reckons that his best goal was that for Latics in a 4-3 win against Notts County when, ironically, he was playing centre half. The ball fell to Marshy 30 yards from goal and it didn't leave the ground as he fired home a rasping shot.

Favourite strike partner: Andy Ritchie was the player Marshy enjoyed being alongside up front. He has also played against a lot of top strikers and Marshy reckons that Andy was a very under-rated player. He said "I know he went from Manchester Utd to Brighton for big money but after that his moves weren't big money moves. He had lots of skill and was probably not given enough credit for that whilst he certainly knew where the net was".

Most difficult opponent: Marshy said "when I was in defence Ian Wright was the player who gave me most trouble and he was a handful and you could never relax when he was around". Marshy also revealed "I enjoyed great success with Latics, where there was a great bunch of lads, and Leicester, Ipswich was my last successful club but for the quality of life I enjoyed living there most of all.