10th March 2000    

Reserves beat Man City

ANDY RITCHIE will order his side to cut out the defensive errors when Athletic make the trip to Wycombe Wanderers tomorrow. Athletic have become accident prone in recent weeks, conceding two goals to Bury, three to Gillingham and four against Bristol Rovers. It is in stark contrast to the post-Christmas spell when four successive clean sheets saw them climb into the top half of the table. Individual mistakes have now brought a dip in form, and Ritchie knows his rearguard will need to tighten up at mid-table Wycombe. "We have been playing some of the best sides in the division and gifting them goals," Ritchie said. "It has been unlike us to an extent, but it was shown again at Bury last week when we defended really well apart from a couple times which were costly. "You can't give goals away and expect to get away with it. "Tomorrow will be a hard game, anyway. Wycombe are still harbouring play-off thoughts and it's always a difficult place to go." Athletic will have to manage without influential centre-back Shaun Garnett, who has a one-match ban for five yellow cards.

Ritchie added: "We'll miss Shaun because he's our linchpin. But Richard Graham can fill his position in the middle and we have other able deputies." Garnett will be replaced by Mark Hotte, who is back from suspension, with Paul Jones likely to make up the three-man backline. That would leave Scott McNiven at right wing-back, while Mark Innes will make way for Lee Duxbury in midfield. Ben Futcher is preferred to Stuart Thom as Ritchie's defensive cover — but Athletic sprang a surprise in the reserves last night when striker Paul Beavers was tried out at centre-half. Beavers occasionally filled that role in his Sunderland days and had a steady game in the 3-1 win against Manchester City.

ATHLETIC (probable): Kelly, Jones, Graham, Hotte, S McNiven, Holt, Duxbury, Sheridan, Rickers, Dudley, Whitehall. Subs (from): Miskelly, Futcher, Innes, Beavers, Sugden, Boshell. Wycombe have doubts over defender Paul McCarthy and forward Andy Baird.

WYCOMBE (from): Taylor, Carroll, Vinnicombe, Cousins, Rogers, Holsgrove, Simpson, Brown, McSporran, Devine, Harkin, Bulman, Senda, Thompson, Brady, Westhead, Baird, McCarthy.

Athletic will take another look at trialists Richard Dunning and Martin Foster in next Tuesday's reserve-team game against Birmingham. Dunning, who is with Blackburn, and Foster — currently playing in the Conference with Doncaster — both played last night and did enough to warrant a second chance. 

TO his many admirers, Wycombe’s top scorer is Devine by name and divine by nature. Sean Devine is the man Athletic must stop at Adams Park tomorrow, but the striker’s record since he signed near the end of last season speaks, very eloquently, for itself. The 27-year-old scores a goal every one-and-a-half games for Wycombe, easily surpassing the one-in-two benchmark by which forwards are often judged. Alongside Preston’s Jon Macken, he is the joint-leading marksman in division two with 20. That total puts him ahead of top-quality strikers such as Jamie Cureton and Jason Roberts of Bristol Rovers, Burnley’s Andy Payton and Millwall’s Neil Harris. Moreover, Devine has inspired a sustained Wycombe revival. When he arrived on loan from Barnet a year ago, The Chairboys (named after the region’s tradition of furniture making) were bottom of the table and had been stranded in the relegation zone since mid-August.

He scored on his debut and went on to spearhead a race for safety which was finally won seven minutes from the end of the season when Wycombe escaped the gallows with a winner at Lincoln. Devine’s contribution last term was eight strikes in the final 12 games. His record surprised a few people at Barnet, who allowed him to leave after the usual goal supply dried up to an occasional trickle. It took a fee of £220,000 to make Devine’s move permanent, but the gamble from manager Lawrie Sanchez has since paid off handsomely. The record signing has set a new high for Wycombe’s most league goals in a season — though, admittedly, they only left the Conference seven years ago — and must have increased his value three-fold. London-born Devine is even aiming for an international call-up as he qualifies, through his father, to play for the Republic of Ireland. He was involved at ‘B’ level during his long spell with Barnet and is still showing a keen eye for goal, despite the step up to a higher grade. With their talisman leading the way, Wycombe are, like Athletic, sitting comfortably in mid-table.

They briefly raised hopes of a run to the play-offs, but — again like tomorrow’s opponents — the pre-season aim was to consolidate for a year and then try to build from a stronger platform. Although Wycombe have won eight of their 16 home games, they also have a tendency to slip up in surprising circumstances. Blackpool, Oxford and Wrexham have all left Buckinghamshire with a full three points, while non-league Oxford City pushed them to the brink of an embarrassing exit in the first round of the FA Cup. Sanchez, who shot to fame as a founder member of Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang, has become a popular figure since taking over, with great effect, from Neil Smillie. The club may be new to league football, but the managerial roll of honour also includes Leicester’s Martin O’Neill and the current Aston Villa boss, John Gregory. As someone who does things very much his own way, Sanchez follows the Wycombe trend of managers with a slightly maverick profile.

Yet he has been surprisingly quiet in the transfer market, with not a single player arriving or leaving since the start of the season. Such continuity has allowed him to develop a highly-settled squad. Regulars include defender Chris Vinnicombe, formerly of Glasgow Rangers and Burnley, long-serving midfielder Dave Carroll and Devine’s usual strike partner, Jermaine McSporran. They do have a few injuries, however, with Jamie Bates, Matt Lawrence and Keith Ryan all likely to be missing from the side to face Athletic. The meeting of the sides back in November brought one of Boundary Park’s most dramatic games of the season so far. Devine scored after two minutes, Paul Rickers equalised after three and Wycombe had Jason Cousins sent off after five. Athletic then bombarded their opponents, only for visiting ’keeper Martin Taylor to play like a man possessed for the rest of the night. Andy Baird put Wycombe back in front late on and Athletic needed Steve Whitehall’s injury-time goal to take a point. After the match, Sanchez seemed in a bizarre kind of mood, storming: “I can GUARANTEE Oldham will get nothing when they come to our place. “I’ll have a bet with you if you want. Seriously, get your money out and let’s have a bet.”He is, then, nothing if not positive. Tomorrow will come the test of that confidence.