Duty calls for ‘Stan’

Photo: -Alan Howarth

New loan signing Simonas Stankevicius tries his luck as Athletic press for a winner against Bury on Saturday.

THE man Darren Kelly simply calls “Stan” will be missing from Athletic’s line-up for the next two fixtures.

New signing Simonas Stankevicius, on youth loan from Leicester City until November 24, played in the final stages of the 1-1 draw at Bury and came close to scoring what would surely have been a late winner at Gigg Lane in the 83rd minute.

But the tongue-twisting target man — a like-for-like replacement for injured Jake Cassidy — will be absent for the Shrewsbury tie in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tomorrow night and the visit of Bradford City to Oldham on Saturday. He will be on international duty with Lithuania’s under-21s ahead of UEFA Championship qualifying ties in Slovenia and Serbia.

“He did well when he came on, bearing in mind the boy hasn't trained with the team yet,” said Athletic boss Kelly, who remains an unbeaten manager in Sky Bet League One after five games in charge - albeit with only one win under his belt.

“He is the replacement we were looking at for Jake. He went on international duty with Lithuania yesterday, so he will miss the Bradford game, which is a shame. He is a quality player and when he comes back in, no doubt he will add a lot of firepower to our attack.”

Kelly also gave a second-half debut to Mark Yeates, who impressed with some calm decision making in possession on the left side of midfield.

It was a game which may have come at a cost, with defender Jonathan Burn coming off the field with a tight hamstring that will now need to be assessed: “He has done exceptionally well and he will not be used to the number of games he’s playing,” said Kelly. “His body is adapting and he will be stronger for it. We will monitor him with the physio and see what he thinks.”

Carl Winchester missed the trip to Gigg Lane altogether, having previously been out of favour in terms of Kelly’s chosen starting XIs. An injury while training could keep him out for up to two weeks.

While disappointed not to have converted a host of chances into three points at Bury, Kelly can take solace from keeping relatively quiet a side that had, up to Saturday, scored eight goals in three matches.

“It was important that defensively we were solid, which we were,” said Kelly. “We dealt with their threat. We got a goal on the back of that”