LJ’s men repel slick Robins

Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date published: 11 February 2015


Athletic 2, Swindon 1

THREE large new floodlights shone on to the pitch from the North Stand - and Athletic relished their moment in the spotlight.

Razor-sharp when forcing and punishing mistakes from seriously-impressive opponents in the opening exchanges, Lee Johnson's men went two goals up with strikes from Mike Jones and Conor Wilkinson within 50 seconds of each other.

From then it was one-way traffic: Swindon proved themselves by far the best side to have visited SportsDirect.com Park this season.

Both before and after £3.5million Massimo Luongo's goal in the 63rd minute, Athletic were on the ropes. But somehow, the three points stayed intact.

Having been challenged to back up the victory at Scunthorpe three days earlier the time did so - and much more. The back four were outstanding, as was Liam Kelly in front of them and goalkeeper Jake Kean behind.

They had to be, too. In the second half, this game resembled an FA Cup-tie against Premier League

opposition, so proficient were the Robins.

Only the strike quartet let them down. Michael Smith should have scored with a first-half header well stopped by Kean; Jonathan Obika was quiet, Jermaine Hylton was denied by Kean late on, and 18-goal man Andy Williams missed a chance too good to be true.

Yet still Athletic won against a side second in the table and previously with nine wins in a dozen outings. No wonder the cheer around the ground was so loud at the final whistle. This was quite a scalp.

Johnson had primed his side to go for the throats of Swindon from the off and the high-octane tactic worked a treat.

With the visitors' high defensive line vulnerable, Raphael Branco was booked for an early tug on Jonathan Forte and five minutes later the defence was breached. Wilkinson raced down the right into plenty of space, looked up and picked out Jones - who opened up to fire a precise side-foot drive inside the far post in the 10th minute.

Wilkinson then scored one that was all his own work. Intercepting a Luongo pass, he poked the ball down field and raced through to calmly slot past Wes Foderingham for his second goal for the club.

And after Wilkinson had limped off, it should have been 3-0. Jones mishit a shot from the left and Forte reacted superbly to lift a header across goal, only to be ruled offside.

With wing-backs so far upfield they were level with the front pair, Swindon launched their assault.

Rhys Murphy was finding the job of holding up the ball a tough one and Swindon's best chance fell to Smith, whose glancing header was tipped over the top.

Athletic regrouped at half-time, but Swindon were close to irresistible.

Jacob Mellis appeared to trip Smith in the box, but got away with his indiscretion and was soon replaced by Danny Philliskirk in a move that added extra energy to the line-up.

Winchester forced Foderingham into a low stop at his near post before being substituted, while at the other end John Swift, Williams and Harry Toffolo all had attempts.

But there's no glory without guts and last night, Athletic showcased both.