Paul Dickov has been granted a reprieve as Oldham manager following the FA Cup defeat of Liverpool, although his chairman, Simon Corney, said the winning spirit shown on Sunday must be repeated in League One to safeguard his future.

Corney was unable to provide assurances over Dickov’s position in the aftermath of the fourth-round triumph, mainly thanks to a run of seven defeats and one draw from the past eight league games.

But following further talks between the manager and chairman yesterday, Dickov, who saw three members of his backroom team placed on gardening leave in December, was told his immediate future at the club was secure.

Dickov said: “Simon’s told me that he wants me to stay on. I’m happy to carry on, I love my job. I’m a lucky boy to have a job, there’s only 92 of us in the league and I just want to be the best I can. I’ll work as hard as I can and if I do that then we’ve got a chance of winning games.”

The Brentford forward Clayton Donaldson claims to have witnessed on-field tensions between Chelsea players during the sides’ FA Cup fourth-round 2-2 draw on Sunday and is convinced the League One team can exploit the tinderbox atmosphere at Stamford Bridge and embarrass the European champions in their replay.

Donaldson, Brentford’s top scorer with 19 goals, claimed to have heard Ashley Cole regularly bemoan the lack of movement of Chelsea’s front-line, which was spearheaded initially by Fernando Torres, at Griffin Park.

Asked if he had witnessed Chelsea’s players becoming agitated on the pitch, Donaldson said: “Absolutely. I was obviously closer to Ashley. He was always mumbling something, always mumbling stuff quietly, but I could still hear what he was saying.

“He was saying about the forward players not showing, saying things like ‘He needs to be there’ and pointing. You could just see straight away that he was getting frustrated. That was a good thing.”

Guardian Service