Late twist denies Latics

Photo: PICTURES by TERRY PARKER

CENTRE OF ATTENTION: Scorer Danny Whitaker gets a pat on the head from Dale Stephens (left) and Deane Smalley.

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Wycombe 2, Athletic 2

PAUL HEFFERNAN’S agent should expect a call from Hollywood soon.

Director James Cameron had his film ‘Avatar’ released this week, a movie that cost around half a billion dollars to bring to our cinema screens.

An immersive 3-D epic featuring scenes set on a visually stunning alien planet is one thing.
But striking a football so that it hits the crossbar and both posts — without the use of computer-generated imagery — is a whole new step up on the ‘wow’ scale.

The Athletic fans at a freezing Adams Park appreciated the spectacle of Heffernan’s second-half wizadry that played out in front of them, but would naturally have marvelled more had the ball ended up behind, rather than in front of, the goal line.

That way, an Athletic side who completely dominated most of the game would have gone 3-1 up against 10-man Wycombe with half an hour to go.

Despite the clear superiority of Dave Penney’s men, who missed a festive sackful of excellent opportunities including a first-half penalty, there was the creeping sense that the home team would eventually sneak something from the game.

And so it was that the John Mousinho tumbled over Danny Whitaker’s outstretched leg in the 88th minute, granting substitute Matt Harrold the chance to equalise from the penalty spot.

As the team trudged off at full-time, heads bowed, there was an overwhelming sense of disappointment.

Three points were there for the taking — but despite playing some superb football at times, Athletic couldn’t quite find the killer instinct to grab them.

Penney was forced to make three changes to his starting line-up due to yet more injuries and couldn’t even name the full seven substitutes for this Coca-Cola League One tussle with a Wycombe side third-bottom of the table.

Joe Jacobson, Kelvin Lomax and Paul Black were all missing and a rejigged defence had Kieran Lee in as an emergency left-back, with Reuben Hazell thrust into action a week ahead of schedule having suffered from a calf injury of late.

Athletic started the game positively and won a penalty after only seven minutes.

Dale Stephens, who was exceptional all game, spraying accurate passes from central midfield like an NFL quarterback, showed quick feet to burst into the area and was brought down by Lewis Hunt.

Heffernan, in search of his 100th goal in English football, struck his penalty down the middle of goal and it was saved by the body of goalkeeper Scott Shearer.

Despite Athletic’s strong start, it was the home team who opened the scoring.

Matt Phillips stole down the right wing and pulled a low cross back to former Athletic man Kevin Betsy. Afforded far too much time in the area to get a shot away, goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan could only block the ball into the path of striker John Akinde, who couldn’t miss.

Alex Marrow fired a half-chance at the back post over the bar from a Stephens free-kick and Heffernan was just unable to keep his balance and get a shot away as Athletic pushed to level the game.

They were given a big helping hand by the Wanderers goal scorer after 22 minutes. A minor coming together of bodies between Sean Gregan and Akinde saw the latter thrust an arm into the centre-half’s face and the softest of dismissals was the result.

Already well on top, Athletic began to take full control of the game with Joe Colbeck in particular stretching play superbly down the right wing. The former Bradford man looks a transformed player away from Boundary Park, possibly as a result of having more space in which to stretch his legs behind shallower defensive lines.

A typical example arrived in the 28th minute, with the Athletic winger rushing past Chris Westwood on halfway before pulling a fierce cross back to Whitaker, who may have done better than balloon a good chance over from close range.

Colbeck was again the provider when a cross-shot from Whitaker at the far post was cleared away from just in front of the line five minutes from half-time.

Athletic got the equaliser they deserved in first-half injury time.

Heffernan laid a square ball to Whitaker and the midfielder unleashed a thunderbolt from 25 yards out which flew past the right hand of Shearer.

There was a slight scare when Scott Davies struck a shot straight from the resulting kick-off onto the roof of Flahavan’s goal, but Athletic went in front only six minutes into the second half.

Wanderers midfielder Tom Doherty was booked for disputing the award of a corner which Stephens fired long, finding the head of Hazell. The defender’s effort evaded the grasp of Shearer and squeezed past Doherty, guarding the far post.

Athletic continued to pose big questions when pouring forward, Whitaker shooting straight at Shearer when he had options either side and Heffernan finding his effort blocked after Deane Smalley had been set away down the centre.

Davies had a good effort well tipped over by Flahavan two minutes before Heffernan’s double-post strike and after Colbeck had whizzed a ball across the six-yard box, he was withdrawn in favour of Ryan Brooke.

The substitution didn’t help the visitors, who went into retreat by resorting to firing long balls down centre-field in the direction of the young striker.

However, Brooke did have two good chances to finally make it 3-1 to Athletic. The first saw him cut infield from the right before mis-hitting a low shot at Shearer when one-one-one, while the second saw him drag an effort narrowly wide of the near post.

That was two minutes after dangerous substitute Jon-Paul Pittman had glanced a header wide and a minute before the penalty that drew the game level. As far as Athletic are concerned, the one point they picked up should certainly have been three.


Penney explains Colbeck decision

ATHLETIC boss Dave Penney justified his surprise substitution of winger Joe Colbeck by saying he believed it was the right time to give his side a shot in the arm.

Holding a slender lead of 2-1 against 10-man Wycombe, Colbeck was enjoying the space afforded to him on the right wing as the visitors pushed hard for a third goal which would have killed the game off at Adams Park.

Just after the hour, though, Penney elected to bring off the dangerous winger. Striker Ryan Brooke — who went on to miss with two good opportunities — came on and Deane Smalley switched to the vacant wide position.

Despite being thoroughly dominant up to that point, Athletic slowly ceded the initiative.

And when it came, the 88th-minute equaliser from the penalty spot was the result of a bout of heavy pressure from the home team.

Penney, though, felt it was the right time to change things around.

“We just looked to get Deane Smalley out on the right-hand side and get Ryan Brooke on, who is a goal threat,” said the Athletic manager.

“Brookey had a good couple of chances. We wanted to freshen it up, really, and see if we could win the game.

“We won last week and it was important we didn’t get beaten here. We were playing against one of the teams that is down with us and it was important we picked something up so they can’t catch us up.

“It would have been better to win, but we move on to the Tranmere game on Boxing Day.”

Athletic, playing some of the brightest football of the campaign so far, created and missed a host of chances.

Overall, despite coming into the game with a team again ravaged by injury, the performance was so positive the result left Penney feeling slightly aggrieved.

“We are disappointed to have conceded so late on,” he added. “It has been a long time since Oldham have come back from being 1-0 down to win a game, so that was the disappointing thing from it.

“I think when we get back home, sit down and look at the personnel we have got missing and the team we had to put out then fair credit to the players. I thought they were excellent.

“It was a tale of two penalties. We missed one and they scored one. We missed chances, in the second half especially, but also in the first half.

“So it is disappointing that we got ourselves into the position we did, played so well but didn’t win the game.

“The longer the game goes on and there is only one goal in it, there is always the chance they will get one back.

“We needed the third goal to kill the game off.”