Penney going back to basics

Kelvin Lomax: Vying for one of the full-back spots.

DAVE PENNEY is looking to get back to a solid foundation against Brighton tomorrow.

Having conceded three times at home to Southampton last time out, the Athletic boss — who welcomes back injured duo Andy Holdsworth and Alan Sheehan to his squad for the trip south — is hopeful that his side can get back to keeping defensive errors to a bare minimum at the Withdean Stadium in order to help lift Athletic back up the League One table.

Despite those clangers which marred the Saints defeat, Penney indicated he will opt against making many changes. One enforced switch will see injury victim Jon Worthington vacate a central midfield spot, with Alex Marrow likely to switch from right-back again to play alongside Dean Furman.

That would leave Holdsworth, Sheehan and Kelvin Lomax battling for the two full-back spots.

“We gave sloppy goals away against Southampton, conceding and missing chances,” said Penney, who is expecting an update on Worthington’s suspected ankle ligament damage today following the ex-Huddersfield man having a scan.

“I thought we had got it out of our system, but obviously not. We need to make sure it doesn’t come back again or else we will have to change things.

“We had been going okay up to then, picking up four clean sheets out of five — and the one that wasn’t a clean sheet was an own goal, unluckily.

“So we don’t panic and start from scratch. You have to build on what you have started and hopefully it is just a blip and we can carry on on Saturday.”

Ill-disciplined Brighton (see pages 38/39) have been in poor form of late, winning only one of their last seven games in all competitions to drop to 19th in the table.

But Penney is taking nothing for granted and is keen to keep his troops focused.

“It is a tough trip,” added the manager, who also confirmed that fit-to-play Pawel Abbott has been booked in for a hernia operation on an as-yet unspecified date.

“They have got good players in there, though it is not quite clicking for them at the moment, for whatever reason.

“It is no different whether it is Charlton or Brighton, it is still a difficult job for us and we have to make sure we set about things in the right way.”

Athletic (probable): Brill, Lomax, Hazell, Gregan, Sheehan, Parker, Marrow, Furman, Whitaker, Colbeck, Abbott. Subs (from): Holdsworth, Ollerenshaw, Lee, Black, Brooke, Rowney, Blackman, McKerr.

n THE DRAW for the first round of the FA Cup takes place on Sunday at 1pm and is live on ITV1. Ties are to be played across the weekend of Saturday, November 7.