Winchester magic earns Latics victory

SOLO GOAL: Carl Winchester (left) netted Athletic's winner at Glanford Park.

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Scunthorpe 0, Athletic 1

WORD had it that Athletic was in for a very tough afternoon at Scunthorpe.

With one defeat in 15 games before the visit of Lee Johnson's up-and-down side, Iron chairman Peter Swann said his current squad was among the best in the club's history, tipping the players to achieve promotion.

Before the game, Athletic’s manager had laid out a clear warning that Scunthorpe were a side on the up and in a false 17th place in the table.

Ffrom the perspective of Johnson, keeping Scunthorpe so quiet before landing a knockout blow through Carl Winchester's individual brilliance must have resulted in a cocktail of satisfaction and frustration. Why can't it be like this every week?

As composed as they were here, with captain Liam Kelly dominant, and not for the first time, the key to Athletic staying in the top six lies not in the manner of this win, but in the reaction to it.

The challenge to Johnson's players now is to beat Swindon tomorrow at home and prove this wasn’t another flash in a pan.

The manager was bold here. First to alter the shape of the side to deal with the loss of Danny Philliskirk, adopting a 4-2-3-1 line-up. Then in the second half he went for Scunthorpe's throat with a set of attacking substitutions. Of those, Rhys Murphy's first cameo for the club contained plenty of promise.

Athletic almost went behind in the 11th minute to Neal Bishop’s volley, but that was a rare moment of joy for Mark Robins' men as Athletic gradually asserted control.

Tom Hopper nearly put the home side in front with a glancing header that drifted narrowly beyond the far post, but at the other end James Wilson had an even better chance when failing to hit a gaping target from only eight yards out.

Johnson's fear must have been that such glaring misses would haunt his side. Single points are little use when chasing the play-offs, and Athletic, to their credit, hunted down the victory.

Winchester's strike preceded an ending to the game of surprising calm. How good was his goal? Probably not quite as special as the three others in his club career – but that's quite some bar to reach for.

Here, he ran hard at the defence and as decoy movements from his switched-on team mates opened up a gap in the middle, the Belfast boy kept going and going before calmly side-footing home with his left foot.

It was a strike that brought a rapturous reception from the 609 Athletic fans behind the goal.

More of the same is needed now, game after game in the 18 that are left in the season.