Euphoric end to crazy opener

Photo: Pictures by TOM PICKLES

TAYLOR-MADE SUCCESS . . . Chris Taylor celebrates his winning goal with Lee Hughes (left) and Mark Allott as Athletic register a 4-3 League One victory after trailing 3-1

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WHEN I finally sat down to my gourmet dinner on Saturday evening (Chinese takeaway, if you must know), a series of questions came to mind.

Had I really witnessed Athletic come from 3-1 down to beat Millwall? Can one football match be so outrageously bizarre? Would I have preferred the squid? And when exactly did Athletic hire the Monty Python team to write the script for their opening match of the season?

Much to ponder, but maybe even the Pythons wouldn’t have headed down such dark, surreal and silly avenues.

This game had everything, starting with a Millwall goal after 13 seconds and ending in euphoria when John Sheridan’s team secured an extraordinary win. And the stuff in between was crazy.

Athletic’s defending, especially in the first half, was downright suicidal and a far cry from their regular solid work of last season.

Reuben Hazell and Mark Crossley will cringe at the own goal, while the hosts were so indecisive, so short of conviction, that all three Millwall strikes can be attributed to errors.

Hopes were only revived when Sheridan plundered his bench to make three key substitutions. And then, after 73 minutes, came the biggest turning point of all.

Millwall went down to 10 men when skipper Paul Robinson was shown a straight red card — Andy Liddell pulled a goal back with his second of the match and Millwall simply capitulated in the face of an attacking onslaught.

Athletic became irresistible, with wingers Liddell and Chris Taylor, who were by far the pick of the starting XI, taking Millwall’s defence to the cleaners.

The winning goal was a stunner; worked on only briefly in training but executed to perfection when it mattered most.

It’s worth recounting here and now. Neal Eardley sold the dummy by shaping to hit a 22-yard free-kick, Danny Whitaker passed to Mark Allott and the lay-off was slammed high into the net by Taylor.

Few teams all season will produce a slicker setpiece, and Taylor’s moment of glory was a suitable end to the most absorbing of contests.

First the mundane: Athletic’s opening-day team sheet contained no real surprises, although Deane Smalley failed to make the subs’ bench when Lee Hughes was declared fit.

Kevin Maher was handed his debut in midfield and Chris O’Grady started up front, but that’s where normality ended and the surrealism kicked in.

After all the pre-season expectation came Millwall’s ultra-early breakthrough, provided by a right-wing cross from full-back Alan Dunne.

Athletic had given Dunne too much space, but they did exactly the same with Tresor Kandol as he rose comfortably eight yards out to plant a downward header past Crossley.

A positive response was needed and, to their credit, Sheridan’s men levelled within two minutes as Maher marked his debut by claiming an assist.

His free-kick found Liddell, who chested the ball forward from 12 yards and surprisingly beat flat-footed goalkeeper David Forde.

So Athletic were back on track. Oh no they weren’t, for next came a horrible cock-up after Millwall’s Ali Fuseini hit a hopeful ball which looked simple to defend.

Crossley came to collect near the edge of his box and Hazell ducked out of the way yet, with no visiting player in attendance, the centre-back deflected past his ’keeper. And the livid reaction of both men said it all.

Implausibly, things almost got even dafter in the 29th minute when a frustrated Sean Gregan whacked his clearance as far as possible and very nearly embarrassed Forde from at least 70 yards.

O’Grady tested Forde with a shot on the turn, but Athletic faced some serious discussion and organising during the half-time break.

While they did come out looking more cohesive, yet another strange intervention saw Millwall extend their lead with a goal created by Dave Martin.

His long-range shot took a huge deflection off Maher, leaving a desperate Crossley to touch it against the woodwork and Lewis Grabban to seize on the chaos by nodding home.

As promised before the season began, Sheridan turned to the new depth in his squad, though whether he expected his first triple substitution to happen in such circumstances is another matter entirely.

Hughes, Whitaker and Lewis Alessandra were given around 30 minutes to perform a minor miracle. And they didn’t half do their jobs.

Hughes chased a long ball from Gregan and, clean through, was dragged to the floor for one of the more obvious penalties you could see.

Robinson was the last defender and had to go, his punishment being increased when Liddell deployed the trademark stuttering run-up and fired into the bottom corner.

Now Athletic were in full flow, with Whitaker outstanding in midfield, Millwall failing to help themselves and Hughes making the equaliser with a near-post cross which Alessandra volleyed in from close range.

Taylor’s fourth goal was superb, bringing down the curtain on a classic seven-goal thriller — Athletic surely won’t be involved in another game like this all season, more’s the pity.




Ace Hughes plays part in fightback win



STRIKER Lee Hughes didn’t expect to feature in Athletic’s first game of the season, but he took a starring role in their amazing fightback.



Hughes — who tormented Millwall with a hat-trick last term — rose from the bench to earn a penalty, set up an equalising goal and win the decisive free-kick.

He admitted: “If you’d told me a couple of days ago that I would play for 30 minutes, I would have said ‘no chance’.

“I’ve had tonsillitis, I fractured my toe 11 or 12 days ago and didn’t think I would play, so it’s great to be involved in a game like this.

“When the manager made his substitutions he told us to go out and enjoy ourselves and try to show some energy.

“He wanted us to change the game and I think we did that. It’s a big squad now and the manager can make these changes, which I think will happen a lot this season.

“For the penalty, Sean Gregan passed the ball through and I had got behind the defence when the defender clipped my legs, so it was a definite penalty.

“I helped with the third goal as well, but that was good play by the team and we are all pleased to start the season with a win.”

Manager John Sheridan said: “There’s a lot I’m not happy with, but you always want to start off well and I can’t grumble too much when we’ve got three points.

“That’s the most important thing and we’ve shown a lot of character to win from 3-1 down, although I’ve told the lads they won’t get away with that very often.

“The goals we conceded were really, really embarrassing. We’ve worked hard for seven or eight weeks in pre-season, and then we’ve gone straight out and conceded three goals like that.

“Sometimes in those situations you ask yourself why you are a manager, why you put yourself through it. But it makes it worthwhile if you win a game from 3-1 down.

“Millwall’s goals were a comedy of errors because they didn’t open us up to score, but the way we finished the game was excellent.

“It was a game of two halves. I was very disappointed because we went through everything in pre-season and looked at what Millwall would do, but then we played some excellent football.

“I’m going to blow my own trumpet for our fourth goal – that free-kick was one of mine and it couldn’t have gone any better.

“We did it once in training on Friday and Chris Taylor scored that time as well. It might only work once, but we’ve got one or two other setplays to look at.”