While reminiscing about games of huge importance in his playing days with Manchester City and Leicester, Paul Dickov reveals that he wants to “take Oldham fans to Wembley” to create a new chapter in the club’s history.
The 39-year-old Oldham Athletic manager, who took charge at Boundary Park in June 2010, is refreshingly honest about wanting to reward the support of the club’s fans and admits that winning the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy is a season objective.
But many Oldham fans will already have divided memories attached to Dickov’s current tenure. Since his appointment in 2010, the Scotsman has implemented a stringent youth-policy, offloading popular club players Sean Gregan and Pawel Abbot in the process.
Dickov’s philosophy has produced inconsistent results in League One this season, with the club currently sitting in 14th place. But despite their current standing, Dickov is seeing signs of his young team gaining confidence.
“There’s no doubt that our squad is a little smaller than last season, but our current players have much more quality and potential to develop.
“Our league form has been OK so far, but I do feel that we’re starting to build up momentum considering our recent games in the league and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
“I can’t say that our priorities for this season are reaching the play-offs or promotion because we have limited budgets and infrastructure compared to other clubs, so our focus is taking each game as it comes and building momentum.”
Dickov continued to explain that some of Oldham’s momentum has come from their 1-0 win over Scunthorpe United in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy second round.
“There’s real value in a competition like the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. A good cup run can breed confidence through a team and a Wembley final is great motivation for the players.
“Our preparation for our quarter-final against Crewe has been very thorough. They’re a team who can beat anyone on their day and we know we’re going to have to be our best to get past them – but we believe we can do it.”
The former striker also gave his opinion on whether penalty practice is a valuable use of training time.
“Taking penalties is an individual thing really. You cannot recreate a penalty-shoot out situation in training. We tend to practice penalties at the end of a session for a bit of fun.”
Oldham Athletic take on Crewe Alexandra in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in the Northern Area Quarter Final on Tuesday 8th November at 7pm.
Johnstone’s. Bringing colour to the beautiful game.