Instant impact

Photo: -Darren Robinson

David Dunn takes training for first time at Chapel Road playing fields.

DAVID Dunn has already made an impact on the training ground with Athletic, bringing in a brand new first-team coach as his first game in charge at Doncaster looms.

For his first morning session in charge at Chapel Road, interim manager Dunn was assisted by Dean Holden and newcomer Keith Brown, the former Hearts and Accrington Stanley youth coach.

“Keith is someone I know very well and he is a really good coach,” said Dunn.

A former defender at Blackburn, where he was a team-mate of Dunn’s, Edinburgh-born Brown (35) also spent time at Barnsley and Falkirk. After two years with Hearts’ academy, 19 months with Accrington’s youth team ended last December.

Come his first fixture in charge at the Keepmoat Stadium, Dunn will be demanding high standards of his side - definitely one a world away from that against Peterborough, which led to Darren Kelly’s departure.

“Training went really well and I got a very good reaction off the players,” Dunn said afterwards. “Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come. It’s a bit different to just being a player, of course. But I am a lad who loves challenges. Certainly after Saturday, there were a lot of things I didn’t see that should have been there.

“It hasn’t really happened for Oldham over a period of a lot of years. I’m here, hopefully, to start changing that.”

Dunn’s impermanent status as manager doesn’t concern him: “We have to focus on the games coming up. The first, at Doncaster on Saturday, is big for us. We got a reaction in training — now we need a reaction in the game, where it counts.”

Points on the board are his primary goal rather than fireworks on the field: “In the short term, we need to get results and I am sure the fans will agree. There’s nothing wrong with winning 1-0.”