Can Athletic discover a winning sequence?

JOSH LAW looks set to start against Blackburn Rovers tonight.

STEPHEN Robinson got into the final of the competition as a player - so now he wants Athletic to make it safely into the next stage of the revamped Checkatrade Trophy by seeing off unknown quantities Blackburn.

It is 18 years since Robinson played for Bournemouth at Wembley in what was then known as the Auto Windscreens Shield, losing 2-1 to Grimsby in the showpiece event.

The former Northern Ireland still rates the experience, in a game that was played out in front of a crowd of 62,432, as being one of his most special in the game.

Now, his aim is that Athletic pocket £10,000 for winning against what will mainly, at least, be a Rovers side made up of players aged 21 and under.

"It was one of the best occasions of my career. We took 30-odd thousand fans and it can create a real feel-good factor in a town," Robinson said.

"Financially, I know it's massive and not far off the prize money in the early rounds for the FA Cup.

"It's important, even though the league is our bread and butter, and we very much want to progress to the next round and give the fans something to shout about.

"Make no mistake - we want to qualify and to end this week with two wins and a league victory too.

"We need to change the team to progress but also to protect people a little bit."

While Athletic could rest a few weary bodies - Josh Law could feature at right-back in Cameron Dummigan's spot, with Ryan McLaughlin in line for a breather too - Blackburn's likely line-up is not clear.

As an invited club, the hosts at Ewood Park are permitted to name up to five players over the age of 21. While opting not to put out any over-age players in their opening 1-0 loss at Fleetwood, a 2-0 defeat at Carlisle last month featured 37-year-old player-coach Wes Brown, ex-Brighton and Norwich winger Elliott Bennett and former Celtic striker Anthony Stokes (28).

"They are allowed to play a number of (over-age) players but you don't know which ones they are going to play," Robinson added.

"In truth it's about us and how we progress with what we have done in the last seven or eight games, taking it forward from Doncaster and the bits we can improve on.

"We have now won four out of the last seven games and the negative voices are always louder than the positive ones, unfortunately.We have scored eight goals in seven games as well and that very rarely gets mentioned.

"We feel we are turning corners and building things.

"We are in a positive frame of mind around the club.

"What we haven't done is build on wins, winning one then losing the next. We need to try and get a sequence together."