Bunn looking for a dominant performance against Carlisle

Athletic's squad have been preparing as normal for tomorrow's home League Two clash against John Sheridan's Carlisle United, despite this morning's reports that the players had threatened strike action yesterday due to non-payment of wages.

A win at Boundary Park tomorrow would more than likely lift Athletic back into the play-off positions following a run of three consecutive draws.

Ahead of a match which will also see the return of former club skipper Anthony Gerrard, Athletic boss Frankie Bunn said: "We've worked on a few things in training, we're planning and preparing for Carlisle and hopefully everything will come to fruition on Saturday.

“The onus is on us to dominate a game again at home which we've done over our past two matches at Boundary Park.

“We scored three against Colchester, so it's not that we're shy of goals it’s just we're missing our leading goalscorer which may be a problem, but we certainly need to improve from Tuesday's performance (in the 0-0 draw at Mansfield).”

Bunn added an injury update on League Two Player of the Month Sam Surridge as well as loan signing Jordan Lyden, who hasn’t featured so far this season due to a thigh problem.

“Sam is coming on nicely, hopefully he'll be there or there about on Saturday, and everyone else seems to be fine at the minute," said Bunn.

“Jordan is doing ok, we're planning on getting minutes into him on Tuesday in the Checkatrade game.

"He's been very good in training and he should be because he's played in the Premier League before.”

Bunn, meanwhile, has praised Athletic's rearguard following the midweek stalemate at Mansfield.

That was the team's fifth clean sheet of the League Two season so far.

Athletic have only conceded nine goals in their 11 league games - an impressive stat.

"We're a unit, everyone will defend, everyone’s together and that’s where the spirit we’ve been speaking about from pre-season comes into fruition," said Bunn.

“When you’re put into a bit of adversity you have to deal with it and sometimes it’s not your day, but we came through the other side again kept a clean sheet.

“I think we're mentally tough.

"We had to withstand a barrage of crosses and long balls.

"Okay, we weren't great with the ball, but even the best teams aren’t always great.

“If you can’t win, don’t lose and that’s what we did during the week.”

Athletic's League Two clash against Notts County, scheduled for Saturday week, October 13, has been postponed due to international call-ups.

Three Athletic players have been called up by their national teams for this month’s international fixtures.

Goalkeeper Daniel Iversen has been named in Denmark’s under-21 squad for their UEFA U21 European qualifying matches at home to Poland and Faroe Islands.

Winger Gevaro Nepomuceno has received a call-up from Curaçao for their CONCACAF National League match against US Virgin Islands, which will take place in Miami.

Defender Cameron Dummigan has also been called up to represent Northern Ireland under-21s in their UEFA U21 European qualifying matches away to Iceland and at home to Slovakia.

All three players will be unavailable for the Checkatrade Trophy match against Bradford City on Tuesday, October 9.

The league match at Meadow Lane has been rearranged for Tuesday, November 6, 7:45pm kick off.

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