Immovable barrier!

Photo: Alan Howarth

CLOSE CALL . . . Jonathan Forte almost steals victory for Athletic, but can’t make proper contact.

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Chesterfield 1, Athetic 1

THE KEIGHLEY cougar was up to his old tricks again in this fabulous game, a showcase for Sky Bet League One football at its best.

Tommy Lee let a second-half Jonathan Forte penalty past him. Other than that, the Spireites goalkeeper was as frustratingly unbeatable as ever.

In the past six league and cup meetings between these two sides the ex-Manchester United trainee has let in five goals. But for every success, Athletic have had 18 attempts, including shots off target.
Nobody can deny the 28-year-old Lee produces some of his very finest work against Athletic.

His only real error came at the death. Athletic took a short corner and Danny Philliskirk's far-post cross was put back into the danger zone by stand-out defender James Wilson. Lee spilled, Forte couldn't dig the shot out properly from between his feet and the chance disappeared.

Eight-goal Forte regularly gets into such positions and doesn't always take full advantage. If he did, he would have as many goals by now as Chesterfield hit-man Eoin Doyle, who was kept relatively quiet by James Wilson and Timothee Dieng.

In retrospect, Athletic will consider that they could have taken three points, as with other stalemates this season. But 11 games unbeaten is not to be sniffed at, and the positive reaction of more than 1,000 travelling fans, tells the tale that optimism is on a high not seen since the days of John Sheridan's charge.

It was frantic at times in North Derbyshire. Athletic, making one change with Forte's troublesome knee holding up sufficiently for him to replace the departed Conor Wilkinson, started very brightly.

Liam Kelly's early snap-shot was easy enough for Lee to deal with but Winchester's 20-yarder necessitated a flying one-handed stop to tip it behind.

With Sam Clucas and the wily Gary Roberts threatening at least as much as the full-backs piling forward behind them, Brian Wilson took a yellow card for the team with one shirt-pull.

It was a nod to cynicism bettered by terrific talent Sam Morsy, who nibbled at Philliskirk's calves throughout the game without a card to show for it.

Not even a dozen minutes had passed by the time Winchester saw Forte hare away down the middle, hitting an accurate right-foot shot thwarted by Lee.

Clucas smacked a long-range drive narrowly over as the game ebbed and flowed, Poleon beat two men on halfway before racing in and finding Lee in typical form and Paul Rachubka had to be alert to push out a Jimmy Ryan drive.

The penalty that Athletic earned after a positive start to the second half came when the busy Philliskirk had his ankles clipped by Georg Margreitter. Forte put it away in front of a large and noisy Athletic support.

Roberts went very close to levelling with a fierce drive that Rachubka and Dieng combined to somehow block, but the respite was short-lived. Roberts flicked over Dieng's head and Clucas raced on to the invitation to volley home accurately.

The Spireites looked the more likely to win it for a while. Rachubka held on to a strong Ryan shot before Ibehre was introduced to the action and the visitors asserted some control again.