Nash return for Latics

ATHLETIC defender Jamie Stott played 31 times on loan at Curzon Ashton last season

ATHLETIC'S first pre-season friendly has been confirmed, with the team to visit Curzon Ashton.

John Sheridan will take the squad to the Tameside Stadium on Tuesday, July 18, ahead of the start of the new Sky Bet League One season two-and-a-half weeks later.

Admission on the night is £6 for adults and £3 concessions.

The game, against a club who last season finished 14th in the Vanarama National League, sees Jamie Stott go up again the side he enjoyed a successful loan spell with this season.

Stott - brought into the first-team reckoning by Sheridan late in the campaign - played 31 times for the Nash, scoring two goals, after joining last September.

Curzon Ashton hit the headlines with a run in the FA Cup that saw them get past minnows Westfields in round one to land a home tie against AFC Wimbledon. Despite being 3-0 up going into the last 10 minutes, courtesy of an Adam Morgan hat-trick, they conceded four late goals to lose 4-3 in a televised tie.

Athletic played at Curzon Ashton in the summers of 2013 and 2014, winning on both occasions. The first contest was taken 2-0 and the second, overshadowed by a broken leg suffered by Nash player Connor Hampson, was an 8-1 success.

The friendly is one of seven warm-up clashes before the 2017-18 season gets under way on Saturday, August 5.

Athletic are planning to play five of those matches away from home - including two while on a training camp on the week starting Monday, July 10 - before getting on to home soil on Tuesday, July 25, and then four days later on Saturday, July 29.

Meanwhile, Athletic defender Ryan McLaughlin has spent this week with the Northern Ireland squad at a Manchester training camp.

National team boss Michael O'Neill named McLaughlin among a party of players which includes his brother, Fleetwood's Conor, and former Athletic loan left-back Daniel Lafferty.

Northern Ireland will play a home friendly at Windsor Park against New Zealand on Friday, June 2, before a World Cup qualifier in Azerbaijan eight days later.