Pulling out all the stops

Stephen Robinson

ATHLETIC'S management team plan to use brains over raw cash in order to bring in the players needed to ease the club away from the bottom of the table.

In the aftermath of the frustrating 2-0 home loss to Southend, which followed up a victory and a draw away from home, boss Stephen Robinson is hitting the phone to register interest in players he feels could help rejuvenate fortunes.

While there aren't fortunes to spend - the club is currently under a transfer embargo and even when that is lifted players will have to leave before new recruits arrive - Robinson has time to make enquiries about first-choice targets he was denied in the summer due to his late arrival in the hot-seat.

"Nobody is phoning up and begging to come here, if we are being totally honest," said Robinson, who will still be without Ousmane Fane at Sheffield United on Boxing Day as he serves the second of a two-match ban.

'TRYING'

"We are not going to pay anyone £1million and we don't offer an attractive position at the moment at the bottom of the table.

"But what we can do is pull out our contacts. We have a lot of contacts in the game and we are trying. You won't get someone who has played 25 games in League One, without a shadow of a doubt. But everyone you take in is a risk.

"The players we brought in here, there wasn't a queue of clubs after them three weeks into the transfer window and we got the best of what was left.

"We have got some very good footballers, some very good players who have to be more consistent - it's as simple as that.

"You can't produce a performance as we did at Walsall and then become a terrible team overnight. But that's what it appears to be at the minute.

"We try to give the players belief and I come out to the press and say it's my fault. But sometimes it's hard to justify when players can't pass from 'A' to 'B'.

"It's where we are and we can't turn away from it. We have to turn it around and get players in.

'READY'

"I have players ready to go. It all depends when, how and if the transfer embargo is lifted."

One aspect of Athletic's game that will need to disappear, as it did at Walsall following Amadou Bakayoko;'s opening goal in the first half, is a tendency of some players for their head to go down following on from a mistake.

"There is definitely a worry in terms of character in that people will make a mistake and it affects the rest of their day," Robinson added.

"We have to make changes and we go chasing the game then. Then when you are chasing and get caught out in possession of the ball, it can be very costly - as was proven against Southend."

ATHLETIC'S Sky Bet League One game at MK Dons has been rearranged for Tuesday, February 7 (7.45pm kick-off).
The game had to be moved from its original date of Saturday, January 7, due to the Dons' involvement in the third round of the FA Cup.