Latics lack a cutting edge

TIME FOR ACTION . . . Lee Croft gave it his best shot when he came on

WHAT is missing?

Once again, Athletic were robust and unyielding at the back, calming down a lively front two after mild scares early on.

In midfield, Paul Green pulled the strings and Athletic turned the screw after half-time.

Up front, Billy Mckay hit a post in the second half and Lee Erwin cause issues to the visitors.

Manager Stephen Robinson fielded three strikers in what on paper looked an adventurous formation.

Yet despite all that, the hosts could not find a way to break through.

The absence of Freddie Ladapo - ruled out through illness - robbed Robinson the chance to add pace and a physical presence up front, where the inexperienced Darius Osei worked hard.

Perhaps the unorthodox drive of Ousmane Fane, who was suspended for this tame affair, was necessary to lift the noise levels of an expectant but small crowd.

Or maybe it was simply that Athletic's players could not quite manage to summon up the drive in the final third to out away a Chesterfield team who came into this game on the back of three straight league defeats.

Whatever the theories are, a third goalless draw on home soil stands as another symbol of missed opportunities.

Mckay's close shave, hitting the outside of on-loan Liverpool goalkeeper Ryan Fulton's right-hand post, was as near as Athletic got.

Upping the tempo after a sterile first 45 minutes, substitute Lee Croft almost netted a rare goal - and what a strike it would have been. Shaping a shot from 22 yards out, it forced Fulton into a flying save to his left to prevent the ball from landing in the top corner.

Yet at the other end, while Ched Evans and Conor Wilkinson were ruled less effective as the game wore on, £2million-rated winger Gboly Ariyibi almost took away Athletic's consolation of a point.

His first attempt, on the volley from eight yards out, was brilliantly pawed out by Connor Ripley while his second soon after beat the 'keeper only for Peter Clarke to head away off the line.

A scrappy 1-0 win would naturally have been just the ticket; a 1-0 defeat would have stimulated some concern. As it is, Athletic's fans are waiting, patiently and with some level of belief that better times lie ahead when things click into gear up front.

Robinson made two changes to the side that lost 3-2 to Shrewsbury, both enforced. Fane's suspension allowed Marc Klok to step back into the team for the first time since the Bradford draw, with Osei getting his first professional start up front in place of the Ladapo.

Pre-match talk surrounded the arrival of Evans, with the striker Athletic came close to signing in controversial circumstances in the Spireites line-up and looking to add to his four goals this term.

Also up front for the visitors was Wilkinson, who spent time on loan with Athletic and who vowed before the game not to celebrate should he score.

Evans kicked into the turf early on and later, racing downfield from an Athletic corner routine that ran aground, forced Ripley to get down low to his right to grasp an effort from 20 yards out.

The former Sheffield United player also had a flicked effort at goal on the stroke of half-time that lacked for the pace that could have wrong-footed the home 'keeper.

Athletic debuted some neat set-piece routines with one, a corner driven low towards the edge of the area, finding Mckay whose shot was well saved by Fulton before Clarke saw his attempt blocked by a defender in a scramble that followed.

A couple of crunching tackles - one each from Wilkinson and Erwin - brought bookings in what was an excellent, non-fussy performance by referee Mark Heywood.

Clarke handled fractionally outside the box and Evans' effort deflected over the top and Josh Law's free-kick was well-struck but too close to Fulton who caught it.

In a tight game, Athletic didn't seem to quite have the necessary spark.

Robinson's team talk at the break seemed to have the desired effect as the hosts pressed early on the second period.

Mckay, bringing down a long Ripley clearance brilliantly, killed the ball and spun away from his marker to take a lick of paint off Fulton's right-hand post seven minutes in.

Two minutes later, Klok found the side-netting from a free-kick when shooting and Green just failed to get a vital touch on a teasing Erwin cross as Fulton came out towards him.

Croft also nearly netted for the first time in over a year on the hour before Ripley and Clarke performed heroics to maintain the clean sheet.

Substitute Ryan McLaughlin dug out one promising cross from the left but in truth, Athletic didn't quite trouble Chesterfield enough as a fairly lifeless game reached its inevitable conclusion.

IN A NUTSHELL: Athletic huffed and puffed but without quite enough quality in the final third.