Pitch battle

CLOSE CALL: Connor Brown fires in a shot at goal, which he saw tipped round a post by visiting ’keeper Tommy Lee.

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Athletic 0, Chesterfield 0

TWICE in the first 20 seconds of this tedious game, Chesterfield players swung and sliced wildly at the ball as it bounced like a basketball off a hard and unpredictable surface.

It was mainly downhill from that point on. There were demons in the pitch and no shortage of hard graft from Athletic as they successfully stifled the in-form Spireites.

Rhys Murphy’s reward for running himself ragged — he was one of two players to test Tommy Lee in the visitors’ goal, with an acrobatic volley — was jeers from some sections of the home crowd at SportsDirect.com Park as he was substituted.

It was a harsh verdict on a player forced into a lone striking role by a lack of options for put-upon manager Dean Holden.

Murphy was as frustrated as he was frustrating, continually making runs off the last defender’s shoulder only to be pinged for offside when the ball wasn’t released in time.

When the isolated 25 year old gained possession in a position to strike, other than with his first-half testing of Lee’s reflexes he didn’t quite have the legs or the close control to make it count.

There is hope the ex-Dagenham’s man’s fortunes will improve once Athletic have found a striker companion capable of staying the course.

Here Dominic Poleon was out through food poisoning, Jonathan Forte with a knee injury and Conor Wilkinson with a muscle strain.

The deterioration of the pitch, voted as one of the three best in Sky Bet League One, helped neither side.

It almost seemed as if a phoney war was being played out, with a draw suiting both to some extent — at least, until Chesterfield upped a couple of gears near the end, hitting a post and forcing Joel Coleman into a flying tip over the top from danger man Sam Clucas.

Coleman was the home side’s star here. Commanding and decisive on crosses, he got his body behind an Ian Evatt drive after 82 minutes and six minutes later was on hand to direct Clucas’s shot over the top.

His eye for distribution is also a plus for Athletic. The 19 year old did superbly to send Danny Philliskirk racing down the middle just after the hour on the counter-attack, and only a last-gasp tackle from Daniel Jones prevented Carl Winchester from breaking through on goal.

That sort of fluid move was rare for depleted Athletic. Either this is the worst continuing injury crisis in living memory or, the suspicion lingers, some players don’t seem to fancy turning out on this bone-dry pitch as a season once full of sustenance crumbles into dust.

One man never afraid to put his hand up for the cause is Connor Brown. Again stepping in at left-back, his was the first real effort at goal of the day and Lee had to get down very sharply to his right to tip a 20-yard drive around the post.

In the 28th minute, Murphy was unlucky to see an initial attempt very well blocked by Evatt and with the ball failing to sit quickly, he twisted in the air to send in a follow-up volley Lee flew off the ground to palm away.

Brown put in a solid challenge as Gary Roberts threatened and with George Elokobi coming onto the field, Athletic’s best chance of making an impact on the scoresheet appeared to be through a set piece.

A lack of precision contributed to a dull contest to the eye - though Athletic deserve credit for giving as good as they got even with so many players absent.