More gloom for ailing Latics

UP AND AT’EM: Joe Jacobson, making his first start for Athletic, goes head to head with Norwich City’s Chris Martin.

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Norwich City 2, Athletic 0

AT least the fans who had made the arduous trek to Norfolk retained their humour during another dispiriting defeat for Athletic, which plunges the side within touching distance of the drop zone.

“Let’s pretend we scored a goal,” they sang, and then danced with abandon, as a substitute for the real thing. Oh, for the real thing.

With bottom-of-the-pile Stockport scoring in defeat at Wycombe, Athletic now stand alone with the unwanted record of the lowest goals tally in Coca-Cola League One.

Only 15 times have they found the net in an increasingly miserable season, a mere two of those — both registered against the 10 men of Colchester — coming in the six-game period after top goalscorer Pawel Abbott suffered complications during a hernia operation in Germany.

It doesn’t take a footballing brain the size of a planet to work out this injury-hit squad’s main problem. Unfortunately, the team has recently been leaking goals too.

With eight senior professionals missing through injury and suspension, taking on a Norwich side who have now picked up 28 points from their last 11 matches was definitely not the ideal fixture in which to try to turn a corner, form-wise.

Paul Lambert’s charges are clearly surfing on the crest of a wave of pure, distilled confidence and destroyed Dave Penney’s visitors with pace, precision and good old-fashioned wing play in the first half.

A two-goal salvo — it could easily have been more — from Grant Holt and the outstanding Wes Hoolahan within a 12-minute period settled this contest with a little under an hour left to play.

Bewildered Athletic could barely find each other with five-yard passes in the early stages, let alone force a rare effort on target as Norwich poured forward.

There were at least opportunities to give the travelling fans some cheer late on as the game fizzled out.

You could argue it was a case of vibrant home side taking their foot off the pedal, but Keigan Parker and Danny Whitaker both failed to convert excellent late chances when faced with the whites of the eyes of goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

Norwich were most definitely at least two goals better than the visitors on the day and Penney will now focus on an upcoming set of fixtures far kinder than those that have arrived recently.

Athletic made two changes to the side that lost 2-0 at home to Leeds in midweek, with first starts for two players.

Joe Jacobson began a game for the first time alongside Sean Gregan at centre-half in place of the suspended Alex Marrow and a composed-looking Dale Stephens stiffened the midfield at the expense of Parker in a 4-5-1 formation, with Paul Heffernan ploughing a lone furrow up front.

Norwich began at a furious pace, going close in the first minute when prolific Holt couldn’t quite get to a cross from marauding left-back Adam Drury.

A quick free-kick caught Athletic napping after five minutes, Chris Martin only managing to hit his shot low and at Darryl Flahavan, before holding midfielder Darel Russell stung the visiting ‘keeper’s palm’s with a 30-yarder.

Gregan put his body on the line to stop a fierce Drury drive and Hoolahan fired five yards over as the assault continued, with Dean Furman’s hurried shot — sliced wide enough to go out for a throw – Athletic’s only attempt in the opening stages.

The opening goal after 21 minutes came from a free-kick awarded for offside against Deane Smalley. Russell Martin slid the ball down the right touchline and namesake Chris Martin’s whipped cross curled across to the far post, where Holt was able to stoop and head into the roof of the net, his 19th goal of a highly productive season.

Hoolahan then had a header deflected no more than a foot wide but was bang on target with his next attempt.

One of a series of raking cross-field passes from centre-back Gary Doherty found Holt in space on the left and he laid it back to Drury, whose deep cross was retrieved by Hoolahan.

The Dublin-born midfielder cut inside Joe Colbeck on to his favoured left foot and smashed a superb shot into the top right-hand corner of Flahavan’s goal from the edge of the penalty area. Gregan got a head on the ball as it travelled goalwards but unable to stop its inevitable trajectory.

A reshuffle saw Colbeck brought infield to try to stem the tide, the ineffective Danny Whitaker going out wide to the left, and the visitors — chasing shadows at times — managed to hold on grimly until half-time.

Parker replaced dead leg victim Paul Heffernan early in the second half with Smalley pushed further upfield.

Athletic improved. The substitute had a half-shout for a penalty as he turned and was seemingly felled in the corner of the area, but the better football still ca,e from Norwich and Holt may have done better than rolling the ball into Flahavan’s arms when offered a shooting chance.

A retreating Parker seemed to strike Drury with a flailing elbow as the left-back ran towards the Athletic box but it was unseen by referee David Phillips.

Then came the best chance for the visitors. Whitaker sent Parker away with a lobbed ball over the top and the Scot surged into the area before firing in a shot which hit Forster on the inner arm and trickled just wide of the near post.

Arriving in the 71st minute, it was Athletic’s first goal-bound attempt in two matches.

It was followed by another as the visitors relaxed and started to knock the ball around as the game closed out.

Substitute Ryan Brooke headed down Kelvin Lomax’s right-wing cross right into the path of the arriving Whitaker, who flicked a shot with the outside of his right foot which produced an excellent instinctive save from the Norwich ’keeper.


Penney: Canaries were just too good

DAVE PENNEY admitted his side were thoroughly outclassed by a Norwich outfit he expects to be in the promotion picture come the end of the season.

Travelling with a squad short of a host of first-teamers, Athletic were undone by a hugely superior home team who netted twice in the first half through Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan to leave the visitors languishing in 20th spot in Coca-Cola League One.

Late chances came and went, and the defeat for Athletic was a sixth in seven games in all competitions.

“We always knew it would be tough,” said Penney, who said his team were “hanging on” at times as Norwich teed up chance after chance.

“Even if we had come with our top players here — the likes of Chris Taylor, Jon Worthington and Pawel Abbott — it was always going to be a tough ask.

“We had to match them up and try to stop Wes Hoolahan playing if we could, but they are a good side and you can see why they are up there in the table.

“I am sure they will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

“It was tough first half but in the second half we made good chances through Keigan Parker and Danny Whitaker.

“Was Keigan’s a miss or a good save? The ball came off the goalkeeper’s elbow and spun back around the near post and Danny had a good chance one-on-one with the goalkeeper as well.

“If you are at 0-0, or losing 1-0 or 2-0, you have to take those chances when you come to places like this as you don’t get many of them.

“I’m not saying that we could have got a draw or that we deserved one, but the players stuck at it and if we get a goal maybe they start hanging on a little bit.

“But the underlying fact is that they are a better side than we are, that is for sure.”

On the two goals that Norwich scored, Penney felt that his team could have done better to prevent attacking situations turn against them.

“Deane Smalley was offside, they took a quick free-kick and put a ball across the face of the goal which we should deal with when Holt scored,” he added.

“The second goal was our free-kick and they scored. They say you are at your most vulnerable while attacking and that was the case with both goals.”


Latics’ next game: Saturday, Exeter City (H), Coca-Cola League One