Route to success

IN CONTENTION . . . Dominic Poleon, who scored at Chesterfield on Saturday, could lead the line in tonight’s cup-tie.

ATHLETIC boss David Dunn wants to spend his cash reserves on proven long-term bets.

Dunn, who is plotting a way through to round two of the FA Cup at Mansfield’s expense tonight (7.45pm), has described his first two months in charge of the team as “challenging and enjoyable.”

But the former Blackburn and England midfield man is being forced to continue fielding a side picked from a stretched squad.

Mike Jones (ankle), Lee Croft (ankle) and David Cornell (finger) stay on the sidelines tonight, along with long-term injury victims Jonathan Forte (knee), Jake Cassidy (ankle), Jonathan Burn (shoulder) and Eoghan O’Connell (thigh).

On-loan Swansea starlet Jay Fulton may not play, either, while Cameron Dummigan is away on Northern Ireland under-21s duty.

Dunn, who made a passionate plea for fans to get behind his team this week, is hunting back-to-back wins for the first time as a manager against the League Two outfit.

And looking further ahead to shaping future squads, Dunn doesn’t want a repeat of a situation where this season Athletic have used 32 players in less than half a campaign.

“Going forward, I want to get good, solid players who can easily play 35 or 40 games a season and who have done so consistently. That will be the key,” Dunn said.

“Then, rather than having a couple of players who can do 20 games each and splitting the budget, we can get in one really good player who can do 40 and give him a bit more.

“Footballers are all the same. They will most of the time go, one, to play for a club, two, for a manager, and three, where the dosh is.

“I just can’t wait to put my stamp on everything. However long it takes me to do that, I knowone thing — the club will be better for it.”

Dunn’s short-term aim is to create a home record to be proud of.

Three home matches in a row — Barnsley and Southend in Sky Bet League One follow this tie — provide a perfect chance to get that going, with the manager hopeful that his players can lift a crowd who have witnessed only one win at SportsDirect.com Park all season.

“The players have to be strong enough to handle it and, likewise, there is an element where we want the fans to be our 12th man,” said Dunn of the home atmosphere.

“I would love the place to be rocking for every single home game.

“I know the chairman came out last week and said a few things and we do need them to be that 12th man.

“Some would argue that the players need to show them something for them to get going. So it is a bit of both.

“I just want there to be a feelgood factor here, every time we come in.

“I am a really positive person — and I haven’t used the word ‘positive’ in my whole life as much as I have in these last three months.”

After playing a role in both goals at Chesterfield, Giorgio Rasulo could start for Athletic just behind a main striker, while Dominic Poleon leads the candidates for that spot after impressing late on at the Proact Stadium.

Athletic (probable, 4-1-4-1): Coleman; B Wilson, Dieng, J Wilson, Mills; Kelly; Winchester, Philliskirk, Rasulo, Yeates; Poleon. Subs (from): Renshaw, Brown, Eckersley, Vassell, Dunn, Byrnes, Higdon, Fuller.