5th January 2000
5th January 2000 ATHLETIC have hit a frustrating dead end in their bid to bring in extra firepower. After failing with a pre-Christmas swoop for Bury's Ian Lawson, manager Andy Ritchie is still aiming to find the goalscorer he believes his side needs. But he is being priced out of a market which shows no signs of moving away from inflated transfer fees and wages. Ritchie said: "There are one or two players we would like to get our hands on, but the money is too much, as is the case with most strikers. "They are a very expensive commodity and it's a bit of a struggle trying to find someone at the moment. "Everyone knows we don't have money to throw around, so we can't pay premium prices. I think we need to look around the lower divisions and hope to get someone who will spark for us. But, even then, a player who is doing well can cost a fair few shekels. It's either that or look at youngsters from Premiership clubs. And, again, they don't usually come cheap." Athletic's attempt to sign Lawson was symptomatic of the problems they face. They offered £60,000 for a player who was going for free during the summer, but Bury had already received bids for more than double that amount. Athletic's three main strikers are Mark Allott, Steve Whitehall and Craig Dudley, all of whom have perfectly respectable records this season. Allott has hit nine goals in 26 starts, Whitehall five in 11 and Dudley four in nine. Ritchie, however, continually calls for a more ruthless approach and will not rest until another forward is in his squad. A player he has yet to see the best of is Paul Beavers, whose quest for fitness is being badly interrupted. Beavers needs to play for the reserves to find full fitness after an Achilles injury but there is a month-long gap in the programme. Ritchie added: "Although Paul is getting a lot fitter, he needs to be playing as many games as possible."
THANKS to the Soccer Dome, the winter weather can do its worst as far as Latics are concerned. The atrocious conditions have seriously affected the training schedules of many of Wigan’s Division Two rivals, but John Benson’s men have been able to utilise the superb facilities at the Soccer Dome all week, to continue their training almost as normal even though the Christopher Park training pitch has been iced up or waterlogged like most other outdoor pitches in the area. And as Benson pointed out, things would have been different just 12 months ago. “This time last year, we would have been struggling to find somewhere indoors suitable for training, but now we can use the Soccer Dome regularly which is a great help,” he said. The players have been making use of the Dome’s facilities most of this week, and will be training as normal up to Boxing Day with the exception of Christmas Day itself. Then a full strength side now free of suspensions will make the trip to Meadow Lane to take on promotion rivals Notts County, a game which has a touch of added spice following the recent appointment of former Latics boss Graham Barrow as assistant to new County chief Gary Brazil. Benson is not only eyeing another three point haul, but is also hoping for a much improved performance following last week’s indifferent display in the narrow win over Brentford which came courtesy of Arjan de Zeeuw’s late header. However, he stressed that contrary to some newspaper reports, he was not ‘angry’ after the Brentford game, but merely frustrated that his side could not reproduce the flowing football they are capable of and which they displayed against the likes of Wolves and Watford. “We are producing performances to an extent where we are a hard team to beat, but there is more to us than that and I want to see us playing good, passing football,” he said. “It would be nice to maybe get to positions where we are well in command with say ten minutes to go and we can relax and enjoy it for a change.”