31st March 2000    

El Banna goes home
Cambridge previews

TEN-GOAL striker Steve Whitehall will be out to prove a point tomorrow when he returns to Athletic's line-up for the home match against Cambridge. Whitehall was axed for the first time in over four months last week, but an injury to Craig Dudley sees him back in the side and raring to go. Manager Andy Ritchie revealed that his 33-year-old forward was crestfallen at losing his place for the trip to Scunthorpe. But he looked sharp after coming off the bench and Ritchie hopes the breather will have done him good. "I left him out because I thought he needed a rest," the manager explained. "He hadn't played very well in the previous game at Colchester and I thought he was looking a bit tired. "He wasn't too happy about it, but I told him we had a big month coming up and needed as many fresh legs as possible. "There's nothing to say he wouldn't have played tomorrow, anyway. "We want to keep everyone fresh, and I also want the forwards to be kept on their toes." Although Athletic are chasing a hat-trick of wins, Ritchie repeated his demand that they stay focused for every game.

He said: "If we post a high league position, people will sit up and take notice. And that will help with confidence for next season. "The mood is upbeat at the moment, but there has been no point when it was downbeat. "The blips are quickly forgotten. We have a superb bunch of lads who are always having a laugh, and that team spirit is very important." Whitehall's recall is the only team change, but Ben Futcher is back in the squad in place of injury-hit Richard Graham.

ATHLETIC: Kelly, Jones, Garnett, Hotte, S McNiven, Holt, Duxbury, Sheridan, Rickers, Allott, Whitehall. Subs (from): Miskelly, Futcher, Innes, Boshell, Sugden, Walsh. 

Cambridge are without their two main strikers, the banned Trevor Benjamin and injured Tom Youngs. They recently climbed out of the relegation places and Ritchie warned: "This game will mean a lot to them."

CAMBRIDGE (from): Perez, Kavanagh, Joseph, McNeil, Hansen, Wanless, MacKenzie, Ashbee, Eustace, Laney, Taylor, Mustoe, Abbey, Preece, Chenery, Mustoe, Hunt, Van Heusden. 

ATHLETIC will face a mirror image of their own contradictory form when they meet Cambridge United at Boundary Park tomorrow. Just like Athletic, The U’s are staging a recovery based almost entirely on their results away from home. Both of tomorrow’s teams are unbeaten in five games on their travels, with Athletic continuing the trend which began when Andy Ritchie took over at the start of last season. Cambridge’s run has been a much bigger eye-opener, but it proves the value of staying cool in the face of a crisis. At one stage of the season, tomorrow’s visitors were seven points adrift of the safety mark and looking set for a rapid return to division three. The root cause of the problem was obvious — they took longer than any other team in the league to register an away win. After 14 attempts, they had a pitiful return of four points. Something had to change. It did, and it continues to do so.

The duck was broken with a 3-2 victory at promotion-chasing Notts County, launching a run of three wins and two draws which has seen Cambridge do a passable impression of Lazarus. They certainly aren’t free from danger, but the path out of intensive care is looking clearer all the time. The Notts County breakthrough was followed by wins at Bury and Scunthorpe, plus draws at Brentford and Luton, both of whom scored late equalisers. Roy McFarland’s side are now one point and two places above the relegation zone, complete with a game in hand over several of the teams around them. Moreover, their revival has come at a time when logic suggested otherwise. Leading scorer Martin Butler was sold to Reading, yet results suggest that the £750,000 striker has hardly been missed. The scoring burden has instead fallen on Trevor Benjamin, a 21-year-old being watched by a number of top clubs. Benjamin is an old-style bruiser who has hit 18 goals, including one in each of the last six games, but he also has 10 yellow cards against his name. That record has led to a ban which rules him out of tomorrow’s game, an absence which is excellent news for Athletic.

Tom Youngs, a 20-year-old youth-team product with five goals in six matches, is expected to brighten Athletic’s day further by missing out through injury. All of which means veteran John Taylor is likely to be restored to the starting line-up as Cambridge try to plug the gaps. The former Bristol Rovers, Bradford and Luton player is now a member of McFarland’s coaching staff. Also hoping to play are the two loan signings McFarland made before last week’s transfer deadline. One is French goalkeeper Lionel Perez, who has already faced Athletic this season during a short spell with Scunthorpe. The Newcastle stopper moved south when Cambridge’s regular number one, Shaun Marshall, gave in to a troublesome thigh injury. Jonathan Hunt is the other new arrival, and the midfielder could make a major impression on the second division if he recovers top form. Hunt looked a tremendous prospect when he made his name at Birmingham, only for his career to take a wrong turn after moves to Derby and, shortly afterwards, Sheffield United. Cambridge warmed up for tomorrow’s clash — in which they will seek revenge for Athletic’s 3-2 win before Christmas — by beating Oxford last Saturday. On the same day as Oxford won the Boat Race, their long-standing rivals made light of conditions which were much more suitable for coxless fours. The rain-soaked pitch was only deemed playable five minutes before the game. Cambridge won 2-0 — the second goal coming with an assist from a handily-placed puddle. 

CAMBRIDGE United boss Roy McFarland is considering a change of formation for tomorrow's crucial away trip to Oldham Athletic. The injury-beleaguered manager may play a 4-3-3 system to counter the threat posed by John Sheridan, Oldham's experienced play-maker. The former Republic of Ireland international may be getting on in years -- he is 36 -- but McFarland remembers his contribution when the Latics won 3-2 at the Abbey in December. "I'm not one for changing our system to deal with one particular player, but I think in this case this player's very influential to Oldham and their football," said McFarland. "He's the hub, he's the fulcrum as regards where their attacks start from, and I think if we can shackle him and close him down as quickly as possible then that might give us the opportunity to get at them. "What we're really good at is attacking them, and I think if we can do that and get John Sheridan on the back foot and defending around their box, rather than creating from the midway line, then I think we'll nullify Oldham a little bit."

McFarland's midfield options received a welcome double boost when Neil Mustoe and Paul Wanless came through training yesterday, but Neil Mackenzie and Sheffield United loanee Jonathan Hunt are both rated as doubtful after failing to shake off injuries. With in-form strikers Trevor Benjamin (suspended) and Tom Youngs (injured) also on the sidelines, McFarland is likely to use John Taylor and Nathan Lamey up front, with either John Hansen or Zema Abbey pushing forward alongside. The manager was impressed by Lamey's Oxford debut and said he had no qualms continuing with the teenage striker. "Nathan's been doing very well all season and he deserves his chance to have an extended run in the first team."

Mid-table Oldham go into the match unbeaten in their last five matches. But they have been struggling for any consistency at home -- they have lost seven out of 17 at Boundary Park and are without a win in their last three. To add to their woes, pacey striker Craig Dudley is an unlikely starter due to a hamstring injury picked up in Saturday's 2-1 win at Scunthorpe. * United's away match at Colchester United on April 22 has been made all-ticket. A limited number of tickets for the Easter Saturday match will go on sale today. Prices are £9 for standing and £11 for sitting, £5 and £7 respectively with concessions. Tickets are limited to one per person.

LIONEL Perez insists he is not merely a hired gun, grabbing any chance to play League football after a nightmare two years at Newcastle. When the final whistle went against Oxford, there was no play-acting from the Frenchman when he joined in Cambridge United's celebration of an important victory.  "When you join a club you become a part of it," he said. "You don't have to be with the players long to feel the same as they do. "Straight away for me there was a good atmosphere at the club. They are fighting against relegation and I wanted to do the maximum for the team and the supporters. It is the same wherever you play. "I want to play in matches. I am not in the team at Newcastle, so I was glad to come to Cambridge for the rest of the season. I was at Scunthorpe on loan, so I knew it was a good standard of football. Not Premiership, but good."

After more than three years in this country after his transfer from Bordeaux to Premiership Sunderland, the 32-year-old keeper speaks good English, and has adapted surprisingly well to the culture-and-climate-shock switch from the south of France to the North-East of England. Geordieland would not compare well with Mediterranean France in many peoples' eyes, but despite his experience at St James's Park he sounds keen to remain on this side of the Channel. "I have a house in Newcastle, near the airport, and my family are living here," he said. "I like to see the difference between countries in the people and the culture. "England is very good for football, and I would favour staying here to going back to France. I know what I want to do next season, but I don't want to say yet." Like so many players, the downturn in his fortunes had more to do with a change of management than a dip in form. "I played in every match for Sunderland," he said, "but the next season at Newcastle, nothing. Kenny Dalglish signed me for Newcastle, but then Ruud Gulitt came in and brought other players. And with Bobby Robson there now, it is no different for me."

His only sniff of Premiership action was when he was recalled from Scunthorpe to sit on the substitutes' bench against Arsenal at Highbury. And it can only be to United's advantage that his hopes of carrying on in the top flight next season may depend, if only a small extent, on how he performs during the next six weeks. As for his unusual penchant for a short-sleeved goalkeeper's shirt, it simply "feels better," to him, something which maybe recalls his early days in the heat of Provence. The fact that he persisted with the habit in the brass-monkey conditions of Newcastle and Sunderland, where many outfield players wear gloves, suggested he was either "tougher than the rest," or --as the sport suspects about most goalkeepers -- slightly bonkers. And, it has to be said, he did some damage to the Gallic macho image by his first comment after being asked for an interview on a freezing morning at the Abbey Stadium: "Could we go somewhere warm?"

BRINGING in Lionel Perez was no slight on Arjan Van Heusden. Roy McFarland stressed as much this week after some fans questioned the deadline signing. Impressed by the Dutchman's display as substitute at Luton, they felt he should have been given his chance once more as first-choice keeper. But McFarland said: "It's no reflection on Ise (Van Heusden). I would have had no worries about him keeping goal for us for the rest of the season if Shaun Marshall was out for that period. "Ise reacted very well after Shaun dislodged him. He showed exactly the right attitude and has trained very well. But he was unlucky that the search for a replacement keeper took the turn it did. "We had to bring in a second experienced keeper after Shaun was injured at Luton, and we had less than two days to do it because of the deadline. "We couldn't have risked going with Ise and youth team keeper Jamie Mercer, because if Ise got injured it wouldn't have been fair on the young lad to play under the pressure of a possible match which could decide relegation. "Initially, we tried to get a back-up keeper. I sounded out Neville Southall at Bradford. But at this time of the season a lot of clubs are looking for extra keepers and it happened that our best chance of getting somebody in was Lionel at Newcastle."We had to go for that, and if you bring in a Premiership player on loan he is only going to come if he's in the starting line-up. I explained  the situation to Ise and he's okay with it. "Lionel, who is very interesting character, played well for us against Oxford, although he must have wondered what was going on in front of him. I reassured him we don't always play like that."

ALEX Russell may just make it back for Cambridge United's last couple of matches this season, vital games in which they look certain to need points for second division survival. The talented midfielder, rated by manager Roy McFarland as one of the top playmakers in the Nationwide League, is making good progress after an operation on the thigh injury which wrecked his season.  "There is a possibility Alex could be playing before the end of the season," said physio Ken Steggles, "but there's no way I, or anybody at the club, would push him. "There's a very good chance the operation has cured the problem, and we have to consider his long-term fitness." Russell confirmed: "It's feeling good and I'm starting to do some ball work. I can't put a date on when I might be able to play a League game, and I won't be taking any risks after the trouble I've had this season. "But playing in some of the games at the end and helping to keep us up would be great. The lads have done really well when you think of all the injuries we've had."

A key player in the third division promotion success, the Liverpool-trained midfielder has been restricted to 16 League and Cup matches this season, and has been sidelined since the beginning of February after impressing in the Cup clash with first division Bolton. Other injuries have piled up, due to some extent to the hard pitches before the recent rain, and the treatment room has been so crowded at the Abbey Stadium during the last few weeks Steggles has had to call on youth team and Centre of Excellence physio Greg Reid to help out.United's resources are limited compared with many of their Division Two rivals, and the crisis has been so severe that this week they could name an entire team of injured players, with a midfielder to spare, providing Paul Wanless dropped back to centre-half: Shaun Marshall (thigh), Jason Kavanagh (toe), Andy Duncan (broken leg), Wanless (thigh), Clive Wilson (knee), Neil Mustoe (ankle), Alex Russell (thigh), Neil Mackenzie (knee), John Hansen (ankle), Tom Youngs (hamstring), Michael Kyd (knee).All of them are likely to be back in action soon, apart from Russell, plus Duncan and Kyd, who are not expected to play again this season. Duncan, who has faced the toughest time after breaking a leg in mid-October is cheerful, however. He is making headway in training and already looking forward to the next pre-season. His progress was slowed because it was decided, while he was recovering from the fracture, to operate to get ride of a troublesome piece of bone on a heel.